Tinark
Active member
From a purely strategic value perspective, there is a lot to be said of terrorism. After watching the documentary "The Secret History of ISIS", I understood the strategic value of terrorism more than ever. Here you have a group that was nearly destroyed and on life support able to use terrorism to become the world's richest and most powerful terrorist organization in the history of the world in only a few short years. And it is the right wingers that play a key part in what makes the strategy behind terrorism so effective.
Terrorism exploits the tendency of the affected side to overreact and take revenge indiscriminately on innocent parties through means of guilt by association and collective punishment. It also elevates the perpetrators into international celebrities with international news coverage and targeting by the most powerful countries and institutions on the planet. These two combined gain new recruits to the organization and sympathy from the affected groups.
A concrete example from the documentary: the founders and early members of ISIS were Sunni Muslims with a radical and violent Islamist ideology. What is the quickest way to gain power and support? Create an enemy of a large number of people and then come in and claim to be their only savior and defender from this enemy. How do you do that? Start carrying out the most brutal attacks against a far more powerful rival that you can. Kill their children, blow up their places of gathering, destroy their most holy/revered sites. This will be sure to get the most right wing of that rival power to rise up and demand blood for blood. They will rally an angry mob and attack/kill anyone seen as associated with those carrying out the attacks. In this case, any Sunni, whether they have anything to do with ISIS and the attacks, will become a target.
And so the Sunni communities, a minority and weaker power in these areas, became targets of Shia repression as a result of the acts of ISIS. Militias would indiscriminately attack other Sunnis in supposed acts of revenge. The Sunnis, now fearing for their livelihood and safety as a weaker group, look for a defender and support for someone to carry out their own revenge attacks and protect them. Enter ISIS who claims to be that very defender and would now meet almost no resistance in taking over these Sunni areas. They are the only ones who can protect them from the Shia militas, they claim, and it works, it works brilliantly.
And the strategy in attacking the West through terrorist attacks? Same idea. This time, the hope is that the West will come in and start indiscriminately bombing all Muslims. These terrorist organizations put out a narrative that the West is at war with all Muslims, and indiscriminate bombing of their towns and cities gives them sympathy and support as the organization that will stand up to the West. Exactly the type of indiscriminate bombing and killing of all Muslims supported by the extreme right wingers on this board. And Muslims are also not safe in the West, these terrorist organizations say. The West wants them all to be surveiled, booted out, barred from entering, etc. In other words, the West is at war with them and they are unwelcome. Exactly the type of stuff put out by right wingers. You are actually the allies of these terrorist organizations, as it is through the actions you want carried out that will rally and unite a whole lot more Muslims against you in a cycle of violence with maximum casualties.
Once you understand how effective the strategy is, you understand why it is being used, and you understand how you are being used in the strategy.
The solution is to not let yourself be used. The solution is to realize that far more people die from TVs falling on them than from terrorist acts in your country each year. The solution is to realize that the actual numbers of radical violent Islamists who would carryout a terrorist attack in your country is a tiny minority of all Muslims, on the order of .001%. To punish the other 99.999% of them for the actions of that .001% is not only immoral, but plays right into the hands of the strategy of that .001% to gain support and members of that 99.999%. The solution is to counter the extremist ideology itself on the ground, challenge it at every opportunity and demonstrate its falsehood and emptiness. The solution is to stand up for secularism and defeat theocracy in all its forms and manifestations. Secularism as the alternative to Islamism for all Muslims. That secular Muslims are welcome in our society and our enemy first and foremost are the violent Islamists, not all Muslims.
Terrorism exploits the tendency of the affected side to overreact and take revenge indiscriminately on innocent parties through means of guilt by association and collective punishment. It also elevates the perpetrators into international celebrities with international news coverage and targeting by the most powerful countries and institutions on the planet. These two combined gain new recruits to the organization and sympathy from the affected groups.
A concrete example from the documentary: the founders and early members of ISIS were Sunni Muslims with a radical and violent Islamist ideology. What is the quickest way to gain power and support? Create an enemy of a large number of people and then come in and claim to be their only savior and defender from this enemy. How do you do that? Start carrying out the most brutal attacks against a far more powerful rival that you can. Kill their children, blow up their places of gathering, destroy their most holy/revered sites. This will be sure to get the most right wing of that rival power to rise up and demand blood for blood. They will rally an angry mob and attack/kill anyone seen as associated with those carrying out the attacks. In this case, any Sunni, whether they have anything to do with ISIS and the attacks, will become a target.
And so the Sunni communities, a minority and weaker power in these areas, became targets of Shia repression as a result of the acts of ISIS. Militias would indiscriminately attack other Sunnis in supposed acts of revenge. The Sunnis, now fearing for their livelihood and safety as a weaker group, look for a defender and support for someone to carry out their own revenge attacks and protect them. Enter ISIS who claims to be that very defender and would now meet almost no resistance in taking over these Sunni areas. They are the only ones who can protect them from the Shia militas, they claim, and it works, it works brilliantly.
And the strategy in attacking the West through terrorist attacks? Same idea. This time, the hope is that the West will come in and start indiscriminately bombing all Muslims. These terrorist organizations put out a narrative that the West is at war with all Muslims, and indiscriminate bombing of their towns and cities gives them sympathy and support as the organization that will stand up to the West. Exactly the type of indiscriminate bombing and killing of all Muslims supported by the extreme right wingers on this board. And Muslims are also not safe in the West, these terrorist organizations say. The West wants them all to be surveiled, booted out, barred from entering, etc. In other words, the West is at war with them and they are unwelcome. Exactly the type of stuff put out by right wingers. You are actually the allies of these terrorist organizations, as it is through the actions you want carried out that will rally and unite a whole lot more Muslims against you in a cycle of violence with maximum casualties.
Once you understand how effective the strategy is, you understand why it is being used, and you understand how you are being used in the strategy.
The solution is to not let yourself be used. The solution is to realize that far more people die from TVs falling on them than from terrorist acts in your country each year. The solution is to realize that the actual numbers of radical violent Islamists who would carryout a terrorist attack in your country is a tiny minority of all Muslims, on the order of .001%. To punish the other 99.999% of them for the actions of that .001% is not only immoral, but plays right into the hands of the strategy of that .001% to gain support and members of that 99.999%. The solution is to counter the extremist ideology itself on the ground, challenge it at every opportunity and demonstrate its falsehood and emptiness. The solution is to stand up for secularism and defeat theocracy in all its forms and manifestations. Secularism as the alternative to Islamism for all Muslims. That secular Muslims are welcome in our society and our enemy first and foremost are the violent Islamists, not all Muslims.
