Peaceful power can overtake ISIS
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
2 of 3 free articles.
Editor,
The headlines are relentless: “Obama to send more troops to Iraq,” “ISIS taking more territory in Iraq,” or “Iraqi troops don’t want to fight.” We really don’t know just what to do about all this. How do you go about defeating a growing movement that is without national identity and is built upon very destructive and extremely radical fear-based ideologies?
We whacked the hornet nest of Middle Eastern sectarian, ethnic and religious deep divides. This gave birth to the ISIS movement. How about “fighting fire with fire.” Does this make sense? Maybe it does. But what is this fire? Is it the military?
My belief is that it is not military at all. It is ideological. It is based upon radical religious beliefs and teachings. Therefore, no amount of military might is going to defeat this movement. Whether it is ISIS or some other movement, it spreads as targeted young minds are taught to build their lives around the system.
The “fire of radical ideology” needs to be solved with “the fire of peaceful power.” It will take targeted educational, inspirational, sensible, logical and internationally sponsored programs to defeat ISIS. ISIS, as a movement, cannot survive without recruits. ISIS recruiting will “die on the vine” as the young are educated and helped.
As I see it, these are the sort of international strategies that need to be talked about and developed. Meantime, yes, some military responses to certain situations may be necessary.
In previous letters I have advanced the idea of addressing international terrorism through a movement called ITEM. This stands for “International Terrorism Elimination Movement.” It involves internationally cooperative work in key terrorist-breeding spots in the world with education, social actions, economic aid, political pressures, Navy Seal type fast-action military units and all manner of sensible actions getting at the root causes of terrorist movements.
Terrorism must be cut off at its source. Large scale military operations, after these movements get to the point they are now, may stop them here and there temporarily but their radicalism in social and religious matters will simply continue cropping up somewhere else.
Bob McClellan
Polson
