I Don't Get It

[MyTeamIsOnTheFloor]

How does posting "atrocity" video's help these terrorists?

Are there people to whom this appeals? People who see them and flock to the recruiting office?

Really?

Because if that is true, isn't it in the best interests of the civilized world to let the radicalized gather and then introduce them to the world's greatest weapons?

What's the deal?

 

[Marvin the Martian]

I just read about this

ISIS are end-timers, they believe that we are in the end of time where to Koran says there will be a final battle between Rome and Islam. ISIS believes they can speed up this process. In posting these videos they are 1) trying to recruit others who might believe we are approaching the end of time (Armageddon I guess corresponds), 2) trying to anger the west into committing to this final battle.

The problem with your let them gather theory is that they aren't gathering but spreading out. We just saw attacks in France and Denmark and a planned attack in Belgium. We see them making attacks in Egypt and Libya, as well as Syria and Iraq. We know they exist in Africa as Boko Haram and other groups. It isn't like they are all gathering in one town that we could just bomb to oblivion.

 

[Yougotme]

CNN had a good article on it yesterday.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/16/opinion/bergen-isis-enemies/index.html

 

[iubud]

The lesson it should have taught us

ISIS isn't going to release any prisoner alive regardless of any deal someone would be stupid enough to make with them. They were negotiating with Jordan weeks after they had killed their captive. The US girl ISIS claimed was killed in the Jordanian airstrike was likely dead for some time and they used this attack to claim that as the cause of her death.

If I am captured by ISIS, I would look at a way to take one of them out with me or cause harm to their organization in some way. It would be better than them using me for a video. You are dead either way. Just don't let them use your death to bolster their ranks.

 

[I FAN U]

Weren't they still gathering when Obama called them the JV team.

When many were sounding the alarm, the CIC downplayed their significance. And still does.

Action then woulda been more effective.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

We clearly made a mistake

At some point they were a JV team, clearly our intel didn't keep up with their growth. Part of that growth was our incompetent allies. ISIS attacked Mosul with 1500 men. Inside Mosul were roughly 20,000 Iraqis with armor (and I would assume limited air assets). Those 20,000 fled without offering combat. That moment made ISIS a magnet for more terrorists, they were winning (and not in a Charlie Sheen way). Mosul was the moment they made varsity. Had Iraq's 20,000 men held the city, I'm not sure where ISIS would be today but I doubt it would have grown as fast as it did. Winning sure spurs recruiting.

Often intel reports what the situation was when it was gathered. Dismissing them as JV was a bit stupid to be sure, but ISIS also was not/is not the return of the Wehrmacht or the Imperial Japanese Navy. 5000 men should never have been able to take Mosul and panic Iraq. The Iraqi Army should have provided a great counterweight to ISIS.

So we screwed up by underestimating what ISIS could do, and by wasting trillions training/equipping an army that would have been hard pressed to defeat a band of English soccer hooligans. We made two mistakes.

 

[FL33]

At least you admit it, which makes you over qualified for a job in the

Obama or Bush, W. administrations.

It is better to be feared than loved.
--Machiavelli

Their PR campaigns of brutality really aren't aimed at you. They are aimed at those they conquer and plan to conquer next. They skipped right past the "win their hearts and minds" phase and went with something more direct--the projection of power meant to strike fear in those around them.

 

[I FAN U]

I think our intel was showing they had graduated to varsity

long before this administration finally was forced into accepting that fact.. I truly believe that a lot of ISIS's actions didn't sneak up on anyone outside of the White house. This president would be well served to surround himself with a new circle of friends & advisors that actually can feel the pulse of anything happening outside of the steel fence that surrounds 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Just my humble opinion.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

You may be right

I just think everything we think about ISI is influenced by one battle where our ally went decided to mimic the Italian Army of WWI when they surrendered to Rommel and a few hundred Germans.

ISIS loses that and I suspect we are still talking al Qaeda. But maybe I am wrong and they were an unstoppable juggernaut.