Islamic State Attacks Paris: Why the War on Terror Can't Work

By Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News

14 November 15

riday night’s terror attacks at the Bataclan concert hall, a soccer stadium, and four other sites in Paris left no doubt. “What you are doing in Syria, you are going to pay for it now,” one of the black-clad gunmen shouted, according to a witness. “It’s the fault of Hollande, it’s the fault of your president, he should not have intervened in Syria,” another gunman shouted, according to French radio presenter Pierre Janaszak, who was at the Bataclan. They also spoke about Iraq, said Janaszak. “This is because of all the harm done by Hollande to Muslims all over the world,” another attacker yelled in French. 

Claiming responsibility online, the Islamic State spoke of “eight brothers wearing explosive belts and carrying assault rifles” conducting a “blessed attack” on “the Crusader France.” The attack, said the statement, was a response to France “striking Muslims in the caliphate with their aircraft” as part of the US-led coalition.

The Islamic State also distributed a video featuring French Muslims. “As long as you keep bombing you will not live in peace,” one of them threatened.  “You will even fear travelling to the market.”

As I write this, the death toll has reached “at least 127” with another 300 injured, 80 of them critically. The Hollande government has responded by declaring a nationwide state of emergency, giving the police and military greatly enhanced power to arrest anyone, control movement, and close down whole areas of the country. The government also banned all political protests until Thursday. The French Parliament gave the government many of these powers following the attack on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket in January.

What does the Islamic State hope to achieve with this attack? Are they trying to convince the French to stop their bombing in Syria and Iraq? Or, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, are they trying to suck France and its allies into sending ground troops?

No one at this point can know for sure, and Islamic State could well be keeping its options open. But, as I’ve argued for over a year, their only chance of long-term success depends on convincing their fellow Sunni Muslims in Iraq, Syria, and beyond that they are defending Islam against foreign invaders. The more the US-led coalition bombs and the more the West becomes involved in ground wars, the more recruits Islamic State will find. Many of those recruits live in Europe and the United States.

How, then, should France and its allies respond? Certainly not by giving Islamic State the war they want and need. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney insisted on treating terrorism as a matter for war, and for the most point, the French government of Jacques Chirac refused to go along, preferring to treat terrorism as a matter for the police. The sooner we all turn away from the war on terror, the safer we will all be.

The next step would be to listen again to Chelsea Manning, the former army intelligence analyst now serving 35 years in military custody for WikiLeaking government secrets. “Let ISIS succeed in setting up a failed ‘state’ – in a contained area and over a long enough period of time to prove itself unpopular and unable to govern. This might begin to discredit the leadership and ideology of ISIS for good.”

At the same time, the CIA and its Saudi allies need to turn down the heat in Syria and stop supplying Sunni rebels with increasingly lethal weapons. According to BBC, these now include anti-tank weapons and could soon extend to surface-to-air missiles capable of bringing down commercial airlines.

Within France, the greatest danger is that the attack and government response will strengthen Marine Le Pen’s Front National, which is running in December’s regional elections against Muslims and migrants. “France isn’t safe anymore,” she proclaimed. “The night of horror continues.” She has symbolically suspended her campaign, but is running harder than ever, as the Socialist government appears to be using her playbook.

A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France, where he is researching a new book, "Big Money and the Corporate State: How Global Banks, Corporations, and Speculators Rule and How to Nonviolently Break Their Hold."

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