As you know, the Obama administration completed its summit on countering violent extremism last week, and it didn’t take long for Islamic State to respond — you know, the group that’s not Islamic and doesn’t represent a religious pursuit.
As reported by Reuters, “Islamic State militants [i.e. terrorists/jihadists] have abducted at least 150 people from Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria they had raided, Christian Syrian activists said on Tuesday.
A Syrian Christian group representing several NGO’s inside and outside the country said it had verified at least 150 people missing, including women, children, and elderly, who had been kidnapped by the militants [i.e. terrorists/jihadists].
“We have verified at least 150 people who have been adducted from sources on the ground,” Bassam Ishak, President of the Syriac National Council of Syria, whose family itself is from Hasaka, told Reuters from Amman.
Earlier the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 90 were abducted when the militants [i.e. terrorists/jihadists] carried out dawn raids on rural villages inhabited by the ancient Christian minority west of Hasaka, a city mainly held by the Kurds.”
Now, how long will we continue this charade, trying to make ourselves believe that beheading Egyptian Coptic Christians and abducting Christians is not about religion or it is not about conducting a genocide, a purging.
How do we look at our own children and explain how this type of evil is allowed to exist in today’s world? And it’s not just one group. Another Nigerian girl – this one only seven years old — has been used as a suicide bomber by Boko Haram — affiliated with ISIS.
Yes, we do have reports about some minor successes against ISIS, such as Iraqi Army forces pushing against ISIS forces in the city of al-Baghdadi. And the Kurdish Peshmerga are making a solid stand, even without firm weapons support. However, we’ve also been watching the videos of ISIS parading caged Peshmerga fighters.
Reuters reports, “Many Assyrian Christians have emigrated in the nearly four-year-long conflict in which more than 200,000 have people have been killed. Before the arrival of Kurds and Arab nomadic tribes at the end of the 19th century, Christians formed the majority in Syria’s Jazeera area, which includes Hasaka. Sunday’s offensive by Kurdish YPG militia reached within five km (3 miles) of Tel Hamis, an Islamic State-controlled town southeast of Qamishli, the Observatory said. At least 14 IS fighters died in the offensive, in which Assyrians fought alongside Kurds, it added. Eight civilians were also killed in heavy shelling by the Kurdish side, which seized several Arab villages from Islamic State control.”
It is important to note the Assyrian Christian community is one of the world’s oldest — far predating the revelations of a murderous warlord named Mohammad. And this isn’t the first time the Assyrians have faced genocidal ambitions at the hands of Muslims. The last time was during the last Islamic caliphate, the Ottoman Empire circa 1914. Doggone, history just seems to repeat itself when we fail to acknowledge evil. But then again, I should get off my high horse.
Could it be that somehow, even without the dedicated support from the United States, this cacophony of groups may be finding success against the ISIS onslaught?
“Military experts said militants were trying to open a new front to relieve pressure on Islamic State after several losses since being driven from the Syrian town of Kobani near the border with Turkey. “Islamic State are losing in several areas so they want to wage an attack on a new area,” said retired Jordanian general Fayez Dwiri.
Since driving IS from Kobani, Kurdish forces, backed by other Syrian armed groups, have pursued the group’s fighters as far as their provincial stronghold of Raqqa. A resident of Hasaka, jointly held by the Syrian government and the Kurds, said hundreds of families had arrived in recent days from surrounding Christian villages and Arab Bedouins were arriving from areas along the border.”
The question is, can ISIS be defeated without overwhelming combat power from a true coalition? And I’m not just talking about Iraq-Syria, but rather an effort that strikes at ISIS wherever its black flag flies — it dies.
This isn’t about a “whack-a-mole” campaign but rather a coordinated and well orchestrated operational endeavor that precludes any maneuvering of the enemy or shifting from one area to another.
I’m recommending a series of hammer/anvil type operations that denies the repositioning of Islamic terrorists. The time has come when we do not just focus on this group or that, but rather the defeat of this cancerous ideology — find the head of the Medusa and cut it off.
This isn’t about grievances or hearts and minds. We have to find the heart of the hydra and cut it out. That means its support, financing, and motivation — while you are severing its multiple heads.
That is strategy, not telling the enemy what you are not going to do and for how long you’re not going to do it. And please, don’t give me the “all we are saying is give peace a chance” and “war is not the answer” lecture. If the grim reaper shows up at your door, you have two options — and my preference is to kill him before he gets out of the car.
We are bereft of a policy to contend with this enemy, despite their firm conviction to continue their barbaric savagery. We should not be reading reports about Christians — or anyone — being abducted, beheaded, raped, sold into slavery or any other archaic practice.
We should be reading about how many of the enemy we have destroyed.
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