Opinion

ISIS wants us to come in and bomb Arabs (Rouhani and Matthews agree)

Last week the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said at the U.N. that ISIS wants the U.S. back in Iraq:

They also have a single goal: the destruction of civilization, giving rise to Islamophobia and creating a fertile ground for further intervention of foreign forces in our region.

Last night Chris Matthews said the same thing:

Is it possible that ISIS wants us bombing it, knowing that the more we bomb, the more we maim and kill, the more the world sees what we’re doing, the more the Islamic world will choose sides against us?

Matthews also questioned how many of ISIS’s supposed 30,000 troops we have to kill. “Do we have to kill them all? Is that how we’re going to defeat them?”– pointed out that there would be lots of collateral damage, and many of those survivors will want ISIS to win, said that we are now being seen, once again, “bombing and killing Arabs.”

It was a great editorial. But when the beheadings began a few weeks ago, Matthews said that Obama had to do something and we’re at war with ISIS. He demagogued the hell out of it, and when others came on his show and temporized, he cut them off. Now he’s temporizing, wisely.

Matthews is also pointing out the Israel connection. Last night Republican Senator Ron Johnson was on and cited Charles Krauthammer’s column saying that we’ll be fighting in the Middle East for decades. Matthews jumped on this. He said it was a “Likud” strategy of “mowing the lawn” — that horrible phrase for Israel massacring Palestinians every few years. Matthews said that Netanyahu can get away with it because of his political coalition not wanting to make a deal, but why should the U.S. be caught up in this dismal vision of the future? Exactly. This is how Israelis think– managed conflict. From the Iron Wall on, they have believed that they have to keep committing violence against their neighbors till their neighbors accept them. And that woeful strategy is rationalized by settler-colonialist Islamophobic arguments like Krauthammer’s. Here is an excerpt of his Do it like the Israelis do column:

[T]his kind of long-term combination of rollback and containment is what has carried the Israelis successfully through seven decades of terrorism arising at different times from different places, proclaiming different ideologies. There is no one final stroke that ends it all. The Israelis engage, enjoy a respite, then re-engage.

With a bitter irony born of ceaseless attacks, the Israelis call it “mowing the lawn.” They know a finality may come, but, alas, not in their time. They accept it, and go on living.

Obama was right and candid to say this war he’s renewed will take years. This struggle is generational. This is not Sudan 1898. There is no Omdurman that defeats jihadism for much of a century.

Today, jihadism is global, its religious and financial institutions ubiquitous and its roots deeply sunk in a world religion of more than a billion people. We are on a path – long, difficult, sober, undoubtedly painful – of long-term, low-intensity rollback and containment.

Containment-plus. It’s the best of our available strategies. Obama must now demonstrate the steel to carry it through.

Successfully, Krauthammer says of the Israelis. Really, you call that success? And he says jihad is rooted deeply in Islam. That is an essentialist argument about Muslims seeking violent global reach. Imagine if someone said that wealth and media power and political influence are deeply rooted in Judaism, would that person keep his job?

 

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Is Chris Matthews changing his tune? He was mum when Israel mowed the lawn, once again, a short time ago, and hardly covered the brutality and slaughter. He also may have taken one or two of those junket trips, which our shameless congress keep doing. So these little digs at Israel is not only welcome, but ideally should be how all our journalists operate, instead of being afraid of their big bosses. When will our media do what is best for our country, and not do the bidding of an alien one. We should be able to criticize our friends and foe, when it is appropriate to do so.

Glad you caught this was going to bring up. Matthews and Chris Hayes the only ones bringing this question up on MSNBC. Ed having Colonel Wilkerson on questioning the wisdom of these air strikes, Rachel has had Colonel Andrew Bacevich on who also shares different views being pushed by many. MSNBC reporter Ayman Mohyeldin of course helping the public open up their scopes of understanding Other than that MSNBC seems to be constantly putting up their safe and sound “MSNBC contributors” who almost always provide the public with a narrow scope. Matthews etc continue to refuse to have the Leveretts, others on who really have the expertise to widen American’s etc understanding of the issues. CNN, Fox recycling Iraq warmongers

Watched a Cspan Air force half hour report on air strikes in Syria so far. Only one reporter asked about the deaths of innocent Syrians. Air Force commander said 0 have been killed. We know this has to be bullshit. Yep our media will show American images of the journalist beheaded or about to beheaded (so tragic) but not the images of those the US tortured, killed in Abu Gharib, Gitmo, black sites, murdered with drones, or those killed in Syria via US led air strikes. Talk about manipulation of the public. Leveretts recommended three years ago making the power sharing deal that Assad was pushing…hundreds of thousands of Syrians would more than likely be alive if Obama and team had gone that way. 50% of Syrians support Assad…a reality.

Phil etc did anyone watch part of the Global Citizen concert? Is the Caterpillar Foundation that was sponsoring part of that concert and initiative the same Caterpillar being used to bulldoze Palestinans homes, buildings and land? The three legs of that movement are education for girls, sanitation and access to clean water. Wonder if Dylan Farrow of MSNBC will be focusing on Israel’s decades long systematic abuse of water rights to Palestinians. Illegal control over Syria’s Golan Heights and water rights

“And he says jihad is rooted deeply in Islam”

Maybe if Jihad been rooted in Judaism in the 30s certain tragedies wouldn’t have happened .
Muslims know how to defend themselves against capitalism.

ISIS play the US like a violin

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a93b58cc-3a8f-11e4-a3f3-00144feabdc0.html

“The turning point was the beheadings last month of two US journalists by members of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or Isis. Once videos of their killings were posted on the internet by Isis, their deaths amounted to virtual public executions.
Bill McInturff, a Republican-aligned pollster who along with a Democratic colleague conducts the closely watched Wall Street Journal/NBC poll, said the change in public opinion had been “sudden”. That poll showed 61 per cent of respondents thought military action against Isis was in America’s national interest.”

Chelsea Manning has it right

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/sep/16/chelsea-manning-isis-strategy
As a strategy to disrupt the growth of Isis, I suggest focusing on four arenas:
• Counter the narrative in online Isis recruitment videos – including professionally made videos and amateur battle selfies – to avoid, as best as possible, the deliberate propaganda targeting of desperate and disaffected youth. This would rapidly prevent the recruitment of regional and western members.
• Set clear, temporary borders in the region, publicly. This would discourage Isis from taking certain territory where humanitarian crises might be created, or humanitarian efforts impeded.
• Establish an international moratorium on the payment of ransom for hostages, and work in the region to prevent Isis from stealing and taxing historical artifacts and valuable treasures as sources of income, and especially from taking over the oil reserves and refineries in Bayji, Iraq. This would disrupt and prevent Isis from maintaining stable and reliable sources of income.
• 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.
Eventually, if they are properly contained, I believe that Isis will not be able to sustain itself on rapid growth alone, and will begin to fracture internally. The organization will begin to disintegrate into several smaller, uncoordinated entities – ultimately failing in their objective of creating a strong state.
But the world just needs to be disciplined enough to let the Isis fire die out on its own, intervening carefully and avoiding the cyclic trap of “mission creep”. This is certainly a lot to ask for. But Isis is wielding a sharp, heavy and very deadly double-edged sword. Now just wait for them to fall on it.

I listened to an interesting interview with Bob Gates recently. He basically said the same thing as Krauthammer, although he was (of course) more nuanced, being the realist he is.

He said that what we’re seeing now is going to go on for decades, but that the U.S. should be careful not to get involved. He revealed he advised against intervention in Libya precisely because he feared that what would happen… is what has happened.

Really, the U.S. has an excellent strategic position. But when more and more of Asia is pushing the U.S. out, it’s easier and more convenient to intervene in the Middle East, where the U.S. has no real counter-weight. In 10-15 years, as both China and India start to get flex their muscles, we will see the U.S. capacity to intervene being severely curtailed.