Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > How Western Militarists Are Playing Into the Hands of ISIS
________________________________________
How Western Militarists Are Playing Into the Hands of ISIS
By Max Blumenthal [1] / AlterNet [2]
November 16, 2015
The Islamic extremists who killed over 125 Parisians on November 14 were
heartless murderers, but they were also political operators implementing a
carefully conceived strategy. A February 2015 article in Dabiq, the official
magazine of ISIS, offers a clear window into their agenda. Published in the
immediate aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the essay [3] was titled,
"The Extinction of the Grayzone."
"The presence of the Khilafa [Islamic Caliphate] magnifies the political,
social, economic, and emotional impact of any operation carried out by the
mujahadin [freedom fighters] against the enraged crusaders," Dabiq stated.
"This magnified impact compels the crusaders to actively destroy the
grayzone themselves, the zone in which many of the hypocrites and deviant
innovators living in the West are hiding.."
Here, ISIS revealed its intention to unravel the fabric of Western civil
society - what it calls the "grayzone" - by provoking governments into
carrying out disproportionate military reprisals and adopting draconian
security measures.
Once repression and Islamophobia in Western societies reaches sufficiently
unbearable levels, the author wrote, "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."
In the mind of the Dabiq author, who appeared to be among the ideological
vanguard of ISIS, the West's descent into full-blown fascism would force
Muslim immigrants to flee for the sanctuary provided by the Islamic State.
To bring this scenario to fruition, IS has aimed to cultivate favorable
terrain for the Western political elements most likely to incite against
Muslims, campaign for repressive surveillance laws, and ultimately play out
an apocalyptic clash of civilizations. Indeed, IS is doing everything in its
power to propel the militarists also seeking to extinguish the grayzone.
The reactions to the Paris attacks by influential political actors across
the West suggest that ISIS may have gotten exactly the result it wants.
Vowing a "pitiless war," French President Francois Hollande ordered a series
of airstrikes around the ISIS-controlled city of Raqqa. To convince himself
that another bombing run over the smoldering ruins of Syria would do
anything to improve France's security, Hollande clearly ignored the final
words of one of the gunmen who massacred theatergoers in Paris: "Hollande
should not have intervened in Syria!" But with mainstream French
conservatives like Laurent Qauquiez calling for placing thousands of terror
suspects in an internment camp [4], Hollande may have had no political space
to act rationally.
Suggesting the surveillance laws rammed through parliament this year were
not sweeping enough, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve proposed [5]
the dissolution of French mosques where "hate is preached." As Poland
abruptly pulled out [6] of the EU refugee resettlement plan, neo-fascists
Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen called for ending all immigration to Europe.
In the U.S., where Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder suddenly rescinded
[7] plans to take in Syrian refugees, right-wing pundits exploited [8] the
Paris attacks to lash out at everyone from gun control advocates to college
students demonstrating for racial justice. Major pro-Israel lobbying
organizations [9] and news outlets [10] seized the opportunity to link the
massacre in Paris to Palestine solidarity activism, even though no such
connection exists.
Among the most disturbing reactions to the attacks is neoconservative writer
David Frum's call [11] to "repatriate the Middle Eastern mass migration of
the last two years.because unemployed and alienated 2nd generation
populations are so susceptible to radicalization and violence."
With his demand for the expulsion of millions of Muslims from Europe back to
the moonscape of Syria, Frum was unwittingly agitating for the same goal
ISIS outlined in Dabiq - "they will perform hijrah to the Islamic State."
Frum has been much more than a passive observer of the rise of the Islamic
State. As a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, he crafted the
notorious "Axis of Evil" phrase Bush deployed in his 2002 State of the Union
address to link Saddam Hussein's Iraq to Al Qaeda. A year later, America
invaded Iraq on pretenses fabricated by Frum and his neoconservative fellow
travelers, transforming a formerly stable Arab state into a sectarian meat
grinder and setting the stage for the rise of ISIS.
After leaving the Bush administration, Frum published An End To Evil [12]
with Richard Perle, the neoconservative former Pentagon official who pushed
for regime change in Iraq. The book reads like a mirror inverse of Dabiq,
arguing for the application of total violence to purge the world of evil.
Frum and Perle demanded regime change in North Korea, the toppling of the
Iranian regime, an invasion of Libya and the termination of the Palestinian
bid for statehood. (So far, only two of their radical fantasies have been
fulfilled.) On the homefront, they urged the creation of a panopticon-style
surveillance regime and implementation of political criteria for denying
citizenship to immigrants. The only regret the two expressed over the failed
invasion of Iraq was that the disgraced con artist Ahmed Chalabi had not
been installed as the country's provisional leader.
Neither Frum nor Perle nor any of the Bush administration figures behind the
war on Iraq faced any consequences for the destruction they wreaked.
Instead, they have been rewarded with cushy fellowships at think tanks like
the American Enterprise Institute, or been called on to advise Republican
presidential candidates. Others made fortunes [13] on reconstruction
contracts, took prestigious academic posts [14] and led [15] international
financial institutions. Frum was eventually hired as senior editor at the
putatively liberal Atlantic Magazine. In March, the Atlantic published a
widely read cover story [16] glowingly portraying the criminal mafia of ISIS
as an authentic embodiment of orthodox Islamic theology - exactly as it has
marketed itself.
Billions of dollars have been spent and hundreds of thousands of lives lost
in the global war on terror. At every step of the way, Western governments
played directly into the hands of Islamic extremists, falling for their
ploys and fueling their ambitions. As Osama Bin Laden tauntingly proclaimed
[17] back in 2004, "All that we have to do is to send two mujahadin 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."
For the handful of ideologues guiding the forever war, those personal and
political benefits justified the price of failure. After the latest assault
on Paris, it's not surprising to see them clamoring for more force, more
surveillance, more silence from progressives and more airtime for
themselves. As they occupy the political center, the grayzone fades to
black.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for AlterNet, and the award-winning author
of Goliath [18] and Republican Gomorrah [19]. His most recent book is The 51
Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza. Find him on Twitter at @MaxBlumenthal
[20].
Share on Facebook Share
Share on Twitter Tweet
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [21]
[22]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/how-western-militarists-are-playing-hands-isis
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/max-blumenthal
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
https://ansarukhilafah.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/the-extinction-of-thr-grayzo
ne/
[4]
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/11/14/attentats-paris-llaurent-wauquiez-ce
ntres-internement-terroristes-illegal_n_8562850.html
[5]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/france-interior-minister-dissolution-mos
ques_564915a0e4b045bf3defa464
[6]
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/11/14/poland_says_it_will_resist
_eu_refugee_plan_after_paris_attacks.html
[7]
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/11/15/snyder-suspends-ef
forts-settle-syrian-refugees/75825736/
[8]
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/right-wingers-already-giddy-over
-paris-attacks
[9]
http://www.thetower.org/report-concert-hall-may-have-been-targeted-for-jewis
h-link/
[10]
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bataclan-theater-long-a-target-of-anti-zionist-
groups-report-says/
[11] https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/665652741079977986
[12] http://www.salon.com/2004/01/30/frum_perle/
[13] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f435f04-8c05-11e2-b001-00144feabdc0.html
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1-eWU2Ii0
[15]
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world-bank-scandal-paul-wolfowitz-s-fata
l-weakness-a-482945.html
[16]
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/3
84980/
[17] http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html
[18]
http://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Life-Loathing-Greater-Israel/dp/1568586345
[19] http://republicangomorrah.com/
[20] http://twitter.com/maxblumenthal
[21] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on How Western Militarists
Are Playing Into the Hands of ISIS
[22] http://www.alternet.org/
[23] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > How Western Militarists Are Playing Into the Hands of ISIS
How Western Militarists Are Playing Into the Hands of ISIS
By Max Blumenthal [1] / AlterNet [2]
November 16, 2015
The Islamic extremists who killed over 125 Parisians on November 14 were
heartless murderers, but they were also political operators implementing a
carefully conceived strategy. A February 2015 article in Dabiq, the official
magazine of ISIS, offers a clear window into their agenda. Published in the
immediate aftermath of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, the essay [3] was titled,
"The Extinction of the Grayzone."
"The presence of the Khilafa [Islamic Caliphate] magnifies the political,
social, economic, and emotional impact of any operation carried out by the
mujahadin [freedom fighters] against the enraged crusaders," Dabiq stated.
"This magnified impact compels the crusaders to actively destroy the
grayzone themselves, the zone in which many of the hypocrites and deviant
innovators living in the West are hiding.."
Here, ISIS revealed its intention to unravel the fabric of Western civil
society - what it calls the "grayzone" - by provoking governments into
carrying out disproportionate military reprisals and adopting draconian
security measures.
Once repression and Islamophobia in Western societies reaches sufficiently
unbearable levels, the author wrote, "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."
In the mind of the Dabiq author, who appeared to be among the ideological
vanguard of ISIS, the West's descent into full-blown fascism would force
Muslim immigrants to flee for the sanctuary provided by the Islamic State.
To bring this scenario to fruition, IS has aimed to cultivate favorable
terrain for the Western political elements most likely to incite against
Muslims, campaign for repressive surveillance laws, and ultimately play out
an apocalyptic clash of civilizations. Indeed, IS is doing everything in its
power to propel the militarists also seeking to extinguish the grayzone.
The reactions to the Paris attacks by influential political actors across
the West suggest that ISIS may have gotten exactly the result it wants.
Vowing a "pitiless war," French President Francois Hollande ordered a series
of airstrikes around the ISIS-controlled city of Raqqa. To convince himself
that another bombing run over the smoldering ruins of Syria would do
anything to improve France's security, Hollande clearly ignored the final
words of one of the gunmen who massacred theatergoers in Paris: "Hollande
should not have intervened in Syria!" But with mainstream French
conservatives like Laurent Qauquiez calling for placing thousands of terror
suspects in an internment camp [4], Hollande may have had no political space
to act rationally.
Suggesting the surveillance laws rammed through parliament this year were
not sweeping enough, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve proposed [5]
the dissolution of French mosques where "hate is preached." As Poland
abruptly pulled out [6] of the EU refugee resettlement plan, neo-fascists
Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen called for ending all immigration to Europe.
In the U.S., where Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder suddenly rescinded
[7] plans to take in Syrian refugees, right-wing pundits exploited [8] the
Paris attacks to lash out at everyone from gun control advocates to college
students demonstrating for racial justice. Major pro-Israel lobbying
organizations [9] and news outlets [10] seized the opportunity to link the
massacre in Paris to Palestine solidarity activism, even though no such
connection exists.
Among the most disturbing reactions to the attacks is neoconservative writer
David Frum's call [11] to "repatriate the Middle Eastern mass migration of
the last two years.because unemployed and alienated 2nd generation
populations are so susceptible to radicalization and violence."
With his demand for the expulsion of millions of Muslims from Europe back to
the moonscape of Syria, Frum was unwittingly agitating for the same goal
ISIS outlined in Dabiq - "they will perform hijrah to the Islamic State."
Frum has been much more than a passive observer of the rise of the Islamic
State. As a speechwriter for President George W. Bush, he crafted the
notorious "Axis of Evil" phrase Bush deployed in his 2002 State of the Union
address to link Saddam Hussein's Iraq to Al Qaeda. A year later, America
invaded Iraq on pretenses fabricated by Frum and his neoconservative fellow
travelers, transforming a formerly stable Arab state into a sectarian meat
grinder and setting the stage for the rise of ISIS.
After leaving the Bush administration, Frum published An End To Evil [12]
with Richard Perle, the neoconservative former Pentagon official who pushed
for regime change in Iraq. The book reads like a mirror inverse of Dabiq,
arguing for the application of total violence to purge the world of evil.
Frum and Perle demanded regime change in North Korea, the toppling of the
Iranian regime, an invasion of Libya and the termination of the Palestinian
bid for statehood. (So far, only two of their radical fantasies have been
fulfilled.) On the homefront, they urged the creation of a panopticon-style
surveillance regime and implementation of political criteria for denying
citizenship to immigrants. The only regret the two expressed over the failed
invasion of Iraq was that the disgraced con artist Ahmed Chalabi had not
been installed as the country's provisional leader.
Neither Frum nor Perle nor any of the Bush administration figures behind the
war on Iraq faced any consequences for the destruction they wreaked.
Instead, they have been rewarded with cushy fellowships at think tanks like
the American Enterprise Institute, or been called on to advise Republican
presidential candidates. Others made fortunes [13] on reconstruction
contracts, took prestigious academic posts [14] and led [15] international
financial institutions. Frum was eventually hired as senior editor at the
putatively liberal Atlantic Magazine. In March, the Atlantic published a
widely read cover story [16] glowingly portraying the criminal mafia of ISIS
as an authentic embodiment of orthodox Islamic theology - exactly as it has
marketed itself.
Billions of dollars have been spent and hundreds of thousands of lives lost
in the global war on terror. At every step of the way, Western governments
played directly into the hands of Islamic extremists, falling for their
ploys and fueling their ambitions. As Osama Bin Laden tauntingly proclaimed
[17] back in 2004, "All that we have to do is to send two mujahadin 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."
For the handful of ideologues guiding the forever war, those personal and
political benefits justified the price of failure. After the latest assault
on Paris, it's not surprising to see them clamoring for more force, more
surveillance, more silence from progressives and more airtime for
themselves. As they occupy the political center, the grayzone fades to
black.
Max Blumenthal is a senior writer for AlterNet, and the award-winning author
of Goliath [18] and Republican Gomorrah [19]. His most recent book is The 51
Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza. Find him on Twitter at @MaxBlumenthal
[20].
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [21]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[22]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/how-western-militarists-are-playing-hands-isis
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/max-blumenthal
[2] http://alternet.org
[3]
https://ansarukhilafah.wordpress.com/2015/02/14/the-extinction-of-thr-grayzo
ne/
[4]
http://www.huffingtonpost.fr/2015/11/14/attentats-paris-llaurent-wauquiez-ce
ntres-internement-terroristes-illegal_n_8562850.html
[5]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/france-interior-minister-dissolution-mos
ques_564915a0e4b045bf3defa464
[6]
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/11/14/poland_says_it_will_resist
_eu_refugee_plan_after_paris_attacks.html
[7]
http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2015/11/15/snyder-suspends-ef
forts-settle-syrian-refugees/75825736/
[8]
http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/right-wingers-already-giddy-over
-paris-attacks
[9]
http://www.thetower.org/report-concert-hall-may-have-been-targeted-for-jewis
h-link/
[10]
http://www.timesofisrael.com/bataclan-theater-long-a-target-of-anti-zionist-
groups-report-says/
[11] https://twitter.com/davidfrum/status/665652741079977986
[12] http://www.salon.com/2004/01/30/frum_perle/
[13] http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f435f04-8c05-11e2-b001-00144feabdc0.html
[14] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt1-eWU2Ii0
[15]
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world-bank-scandal-paul-wolfowitz-s-fata
l-weakness-a-482945.html
[16]
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/3
84980/
[17] http://www.aljazeera.com/archive/2004/11/200849163336457223.html
[18]
http://www.amazon.com/Goliath-Life-Loathing-Greater-Israel/dp/1568586345
[19] http://republicangomorrah.com/
[20] http://twitter.com/maxblumenthal
[21] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on How Western Militarists
Are Playing Into the Hands of ISIS
[22] http://www.alternet.org/
[23] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
