“The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.”
…The Atlantic
Peggy Noonan’s writes of Graeme Wood’s upcoming piece in The Atlantic and calls it “bracing because it is fearless.” The information Mr. Graeme delivers gives political leaders the information needed to understand the disparate situation that may shape U.S. foreign policy for the next decade.
As Ms. Noonan tells WSJ readers, Mr. Graeme argues that ISIS wants to draw America into the fight because it would be a propaganda win for ISIS. ISIS maintains that the U.S.’s intent has always been to embark on a modern-day Crusade against Islam. But it would be a disaster if a U.S. ground invasion failed. The best of bad options is to “slowly bleed” ISIS through air strikes and proxy wars that will “keep the Islamic State from fulfilling its duty to expand.”
“The rise of ISIS, after all, happened only because our previous occupation created space for Zarqawi and his followers,” writes Ms. Noonan. “Who knows the consequences of another botched job?”
Read more here from Peggy Noonan on Mr. Graeme’s timely piece, coming out on the heels of the “violent extremists” summit last week, where Mr. Obama “emphasized Islamic ‘legitimate grievances’ and lectured America on the need for tolerance toward American Muslims.”
