Jim Geraghty knows that already, of course. That’s why he wrote this:
You know, of all of the injustices in the world, the idea that the Islamic State’s viewpoint isn’t getting a sufficiently nuanced assessment in Western discussions is pretty far down my list of concerns.
Same here. I mean: Jesus Christ, it’s a no-fooling human-sacrificing death cult. And I’m not swearing, either. I’m presumptuously bringing that fact to my God’s attention.
This is a problem. Chaotic Evil death cults are, of course, horrid: but they also can be slaughtered with relative impunity. Lawful Evil cults, on the other hand, tend to want to stick around for a while. As we are seeing in the Middle East right now.
While no one is predicting that the Islamic State will become steward of an accountable, functioning state anytime soon, the group is putting in place the kinds of measures associated with governance: issuing identification cards for residents, promulgating fishing guidelines to preserve stocks, requiring that cars carry tool kits for emergencies. That transition may demand that the West rethink its military-first approach to combating the group.
Continue reading Marvelous: the Islamic State death cult is LAWFUL Evil.
…on how to let regimes in the Middle East deal with ISIS:
On reflection, I think we need to let Arab allies seize the ground now held by ISIS. That’s because — unlike us or Israel — they won’t be squeamish about running the firing squads until there aren’t any ISIS fighters left. We and the Israelis, on the other hand, should quietly remove the people funding ISIS.
Is it a good idea? Well, you might very well think that: but I couldn’t possibly comment.
While reading this passage on how inevitably Libya collapsed (via Instapundit), I came across this passage:
They don’t realize it yet, but these guys are on a path to make even Donny Rumsfeld and Tommy Franks look good—and you thought that was impossible.
Continue reading Quote of the Day, The Antiwar Movement Lacks The Right To Lecture Us edition.
“History does not always repeat itself: sometimes it screams ‘Why won’t you ever listen to what I’m SAYING?’ and then hits you with a club.”
Michael Totten, on the looming danger of ISIS to Lebanon:
A serious invasion of Lebanon by ISIS could unleash a bloodbath that makes the civil war in Syria look like a bar fight with pool sticks and beer mugs. It would be tantamount to a Nazi invasion. Every family in Lebanon is armed to the gills thanks to the state being too weak and divided to provide basic security, but people anywhere in the world facing psychopathic mass-murderers will fight with kitchen knives and even their fingernails and teeth if they have to.
The only good thing that might emerge from an attempted ISIS invasion is that the eternally fractious Lebanese might finally realize they have enough in common with each other to band together for survival and kindle something that resembles a national identity for the first time in their history.
Continue reading Some thoughts, several years before the start of the Tenth Crusade.
Barbarians.
https://twitter.com/marypatriott/status/571007683270189057
Moe Lane
*Says a lot that I have to put up a safe-for-work tag for that.
This exchange really does say a lot:
Guy says calling #ISIS barbarians is “goofy and beneath serious journalists.” (REALLY?) I like @EliLake‘s response: pic.twitter.com/Cyje6vXlyR
— Ericka Andersen (@ErickaAndersen) February 19, 2015
…not least because it illustrates the primary problem with moral relativism: that is, that moral relativism does not have a goram clue about how to handle capital-E Evil. Oh, Good it can deal with all the time, mostly by ignoring/liberal-explaining it away; but pretending that Evil does not in fact exist does nothing from keeping Evil from doing, well, evil. Rationalizing this problem away can lead to some rather startling mental contortions. Continue reading The Activist Left’s Poor and Paltry Rhetorical Toolbox, ISIS edition.
Come, I will show you a wonder: Chris Matthews saying something that most of the people reading this will agree with*. Transcript via Right Scoop (video of all of this over there, too):
[CHRIS] MATTHEWS: Are we killing enough of them [Islamic State cultists]?
[State Department spokeswoman MARIE] HARF: We’re killing a lot of them and we’re going to keep killing more of them. So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians. They’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs, whether —
MATTHEWS: We’re not going to be able to stop that in our lifetime or fifty lifetimes. There’s always going to be poor people. There’s always going to be poor muslims, and as long as there are poor Muslims, the trumpet’s blowing and they’ll join. We can’t stop that, can we?
HARF: We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance. We can help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people…
Details here, and may Christ welcome and comfort those martyrs. You already know my opinion of their murderers. And my opinion of a foreign policy that seems indifferent to the rapid spread across the Middle East of what is, in point of fact, a literal death cult. One that practices human sacrifice on a regular basis.
Continue reading Death Cult outbreak in Libya: 21 Coptic Christians ritually sacrificed by IS.
I really kind of liked living in a world where our enemies weren’t becoming steadily more emboldened to do things like this in public, and on the record.
Hey #Oakland. #MLKShutItDown #BARTFriday #LGBT how about a march against #ISIS throwing gay men off buildings pic.twitter.com/TpTrghaqaa
— Cameron Gray (@Cameron_Gray) January 16, 2015
Well, at least I don’t have to spend too much time trying to figure out which side I’m on.