ISIS and the GOP, Natural Allies

By Marc Ash, Reader Supported News

06 December 15

n perfect alignment with the objectives of U.S. Republican presidential candidates, ISIS has struck twice recently with the only weapon it has, cowardly murder.

On cue, Republican presidential candidates are literally tripping over one another to get to the microphone to scream “War” as quickly, loudly, and self-promotionally as they can, each one trying harder than the next to convince whoever will listen that they will be the next true “war president.”

The problem is that there is no one to have a war with, and there really never has been. We are chasing individuals, not armies. They move from place to place, nation to nation, civilian population to civilian population without any serious power or strength. Hoping against hope that they can provoke the foolish Americans and the West into another ill-fated foray into Islamic lands. Why? Recruitment.

ISIS is not an army. They lack the means to really go to war with anyone. They can attack local defenseless populations, and obviously shoot unarmed civilians, but they have no real military capacity. The only chance they have is to draw the U.S. into yet another one-sided war effort.

Should the U.S. once again occupy the Iraqi-Syrian region, then and only then does ISIS have any chance of marshaling the kind of popular support they need to gain any real traction. Right now they’re limited to murdering civilians. However that will all change if the U.S. can be drawn back into Iraq. Then ISIS can gain immense strength.

You can’t go to war with a guy or the wife of a guy who can simply walk into an American gun store, quite legally purchase as many guns as they like, and just start shooting people for publicity. You can’t go to war with that, and the GOP presidential candidates calling for war are well aware of it. Yes, they are lying.

The biggest lie of all is that ISIS is responsible for gun-related violence in the U.S. While they would obviously like to be, they account for just a tiny fraction of the gun violence in America.

On the day of the San Bernardino shootings there were two mass shootings, and those were the 354th and 355th of the year, according to The Washington Post. Sorry to disappoint those crying for a war against Islam, but the vast majority of those who kill with a gun in the U.S. are angry white men. Like Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, and Marco Rubio. “White terrorism” in America is a bigger problem by orders of magnitude than ISIS-inspired terrorism.

Yes, guns can be obtained in the U.S., but ISIS followers apparently had no difficulty obtaining the guns used in the Paris attacks either. Hand-held guns are, and always will be, fairly easy to get ahold of. No GOP-American War on Terror and/or ISIS will change that.

“War” with individuals who cannot even be identified does not, cannot make anyone in the U.S. safer.

What is most revolting about the GOP candidates is their shameless self-interest in calling for a war they know perfectly well will fail. They want power. To hell with whoever pays the price.

The first invasion of Iraq was pure insanity. We are paying the price for that fool’s errand dearly now. Repeating that mistake would be catastrophic.

Marc Ash was formerly the founder and Executive Director of Truthout, and is now founder and Editor of Reader Supported News.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.