The Paris Attacks

Statue of Liberty. Ellis Island, NY, 2015

My heart breaks for those affected by yesterdays criminal attack in Paris. Unbelievable. And my heart also breaks for those affected by similar attacks that occur in an almost daily basis in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories (but we no longer pay much attention to these).

It is all just MADness.

In the case of Paris, yes, we could argue that we wouldn’t be in this situation if evil Saddam Hussein were still in place in Iraq to fill the power vacuum and to act as a regional counterweight (thanks, Bush II-Cheney Farm Team). Yes, we could argue that.

But it doesn’t change where we are now. We still need to deal with things as they are.

Given the recent downing of the Russian airliner, attacks in Turkey, and now this, I would guess that we are going to see a pretty strong unified reaction from the entire free world (assuming you consider Turkey and Russia free, I guess).

ISIS, don’t you understand that what you just did was, in the long run, counterproductive and will eventually result in your elimination? If only you intolerant and fascist idiots would put as much energy into building and improving as opposed to killing and destroying, your world and the world as a whole would be a better place.

Hopefully, the inevitable reaction to the Paris attacks won’t be as excessive and misplaced as it was in the U.S. after 9-11 (e.g., Iraq invasion). We can’t become them. We should take care not to react in such a way as to make it easier for ISIS to recruit and replenish their rank and ridiculous ranks.

Yes, we do need to increase our effort to kill the ISIS criminals on the battlefield. Yes, we need to continue to use our intelligence resources as smartly as possible to question, arrest, and detain…to cut off their finances…to disrupt possible attacks–in Russia, in France, in Turkey, in Afghanistan, in the USA, everywhere.

But we also need to figure out why so many young people are attracted to such a cruel and goofball outfit as ISIS in the first place. We need to eliminate the flow into the ISIS ranks–stop the supply part of the equation. Why is it that so many young people apparently feel so empty that they find a suicide vest and an AK-47 to be romantic and attractive playthings in the first place? That is the question.

ISIS should be universally considered a very unattractive, even disgusting, anti-Muslim, and anti-human, option. And here is where the mainstream Muslim community and their leaders–along with ALL of us–have an opportunity to help immeasurably, and I sincerely hope they do.

In the meantime…we will watch the funerals on television and wonder when and where it will happen next.