It is not very often, if ever, that a nation’s enemy offers up its ultimate political goal replete with how they intend on implementing a carefully conceived strategy; especially a strategy that entails inciting their foe to self-inflict serious economic, social, and political wounds. When Osama bin Laden orchestrated the terror attacks on 9/11, the hapless Bush administration may not have known why al Qaeda operatives dared attack Americans on American soil; not that it would have mattered because Bush wanted some Middle East wars. Nevertheless, Bush reacted precisely as bin Laden expected and involved Americans in, not one, but two extremely costly and drawn-out Middle East wars giving bin Laden every right to declare “Mission Accomplished;” albeit without the banner on an aircraft carrier.
The horrific attacks on innocent Parisians last week were not solely to wreak death and destruction on innocent civilians, or as retribution for France’s military action against the Islamic State and ISIS explained precisely why. In the official ISIS magazine, Dabiq, the Islamic State broadcast its intent, and the expected Western response, in launching attacks like the one in Paris. What is not-so-stunning is that Republicans are reacting exactly as predicted by ISIS to help them achieve their well-advertised long-term goal to “Unravel the fabric of Western civil society, the “grayzone,” by provoking governments into carrying out disproportionate military reprisals and adopting draconian security measures against Muslims living in their countries.”
In the February 2015 edition of Dabiq, an essay entitled “The Extinction of the Gray Zone” was specific on what the Islamic State’s expanded terror activities were meant to achieve. The gist of the plot according to ISIS is provoking “the West” into making the same errors as Bush, and worse. The author wrote;
“Once repression and Islamophobia in Western societies reaches sufficiently unbearable levels, the Muslims in the West will quickly find themselves between one of two choices, they either apostatize and adopt the kufri (infidel) religion propagated by Bush, Obama, Blair, Cameron, Sarkozy, and Hollande in the name of Islam so as to live amongst the kuffar (infidels) without hardship. or they perform hijrah (emigrate) to the Islamic State and thereby escape persecution from the crusader governments and citizens.”
The essay’s author is apparently among the ideological leaders of ISIS who knows the West in general, and America in particular, will “descend into full-blown fascism and force Muslim immigrants to flee for the sanctuary provided by the Islamic State.” In France, although President Francois Hollande promised a pitiless war against ISIS, instead of evicting or persecuting Muslims, he said France would continue being humanitarians and welcome additional thousands of Syrian refugees fleeing the pitiless warzone created by George W. Bush and executed by his special creation ISIS.
It is a different story in America where Republicans are playing right into ISIS’ hands and doing precisely as the Islamic State’s leadership wants. For example, besides the predictable reaction from congressional Republicans, Michigan’s Rick Snyder suddenly rejected his state’s plans to take in any Syrian refugees because ISIS, Islam, Paris, easy accessible firearms, Christianity or all of the above. Conservative media has performed its ISIS-directed role admirably and, exactly as ISIS predicted, made the horror in Paris a golden opportunity to assail gun safety advocates and college students seeking racial justice. Never missing an opportunity to garner support against Muslims, pro-Israel lobbies and anti-Islam groups attempted to link decent humans calling for relief and solidarity for beleaguered Palestinians to the terrorists involved in the Paris attacks. There is no such connection, but the Israelis have learned well from Republicans that outrageous lies about Muslims is a sure-fired means of starting a war in the Middle East; one that Americans have to fight and die in.
One conservative writer, David Frum, called for America to forgo the ISIS directive to “persecute and chase Muslims out of America” and really help the Islamic State achieve its goal much sooner than later. Frum’s plan is to just “repatriate (deport) the Middle Eastern mass migration of the last two years…because unemployed and alienated 2nd generation populations are so susceptible to radicalization and violence.” David Frum is not a stupid man, but does he comprehend that even talking about forcing Muslims from Europe and America back to Bush’s warzone is precisely the same goal as that of the Islamic State?
In 2004, Osama bin Laden gave a very brief, two sentence, lesson to Muslim extremists on just how easily America is manipulated and punished. He said,
“All that we have to do is to send two mujahedin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth on which is written Al-Qaeda, in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than some benefits for their private companies.”
It is important to note that in 2004 America had not yet begun to feel the suffering bin Laden knew before 2001 that America would inflict on itself; suffering Republicans are rabid to repeat whether they are doing ISIS’ bidding or taking directives from Israel.
Obviously, bin Laden was right about America under a Republican administration and unlike stupid and predictable Republicans who can never learn, the Islamic State’s leadership took bin Laden’s tutelage to heart and easily provoked Republicans to “clamor for more military force, more intrusive surveillance, more media exposure, and more silence from liberals and progressives.” It is frightening, but even with a rational Democrat in the White House, Republicans are already working feverishly to do exactly as the ISIS author predicted the Islamophobic fascists would do; “claim the political center as the ‘grayzone’ (West) fades to black.”
One can imagine ISIS leaders watching the reaction from Republicans as they plan their “Mission Accomplished” gala with wild anticipation that they will be celebrating much happen sooner than they could have ever hoped.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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