Inspiration from Zion: This is a Love Story

Does anyone remember the video of the “rebel” eating the liver of the Syrian soldier he had just killed? Certainly it is logical to believe that they are the “good guys” and just want “freedom”. Right?

The thought of America, some coalition, whoever putting MORE weapons in to the mix that is Syria is, to me, absolutely horrifying. I think America gave enough weapons to people who should have them, people who use them to slaughter, not defend.

It is convenient to imagine that there are “good guys” who will take care of the problem for the Western world but what if they don’t actually exist?

America or whoever can certainly bomb Islamic State terrorists. Not that I believe anyone who tells me that America can tell the difference between the terrorists and the civilian population they move within. These people don’t sit around in buildings marked “terrorist HQ”, they are on the move, in trucks and tanks, in villages filled with regular people who often want nothing to do with them. I do know for certain that America does not go anywhere near the efforts Israel does to avoid hurting innocent civilians…

What America can’t do is bomb an ideology. The Islamic State rampage in Iraq and Syria is the result of the ideology, not the cause of the problem. Stopping a few terrorists (or even hundreds) will not stop the ideology. The problem is in the teachings in mosques in America, England, France, South Africa, across Europe and around the world. The problem is in the western desire to ignore things that are “not nice,” pretend that moral equivalency exists and silence those that dare say otherwise.

The Islamic State provides hope to the Muslim world and hope is very hard to kill. Even many Muslims who disagree with the methods used by the group find the IS message compelling: a global Caliphate is possible. The world can be made to submit to Islam and to them it doesn’t really matter if submission is achieved by free choice, demographics or by beheadings and crucifixions. It is the end result that counts. Most people want to be part of something greater than themselves and in this day and age the Caliphate is the most powerful ideology that exists. The Westerners that join IS are not “lone wolves,” they aren’t a few scattered nut jobs either. They are people looking for a cause that will make them important, people with deep convictions (twisted as they are) and willing to die for their faith. They know that even if they die, the ideology lives on.

The “War on Terror” is not in Iraq or Syria. It is in your local government, your newspaper and the curriculum at your child’s school. It is spreading from the mosques in to the streets, YOUR streets.

Ignore it at your peril.