The Islamic State and Climate Change

I’ve had some great jobs during my thirty-five years in the Army.  One of my favorites was serving as the Strategic Planner for Army Forces in Afghanistan for the transition to Phase 4 of the Campaign.  My immediate boss was one of the greatest Generals our Army’s ever produced.  I had two goals in that job; first, make my boss the smartest guy in the room, secondly, not get yelled at.  Key to achieving that end: devour mounds of data, information and intelligence, analyze and synthesize it, then brief him accordingly.  With that mindset, I’ll use this brief column to tell you what you need to know about the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

First, why should you care about ISIS?  Because they want you to convert or die.  Secondly, they‘re on the march; gathering up territory, resources, followers and enslaving captives across the Middle East,  Africa, and the cyber world, leaving a trail of death and destruction in their wake. 

ISIS or ISIL?  President Obama says ISIL.  Some speculate it’s because ISIS reminds him of his Syria failure.  Since June 2014 the correct answer, is "Islamic State" -- the areas they’ve conquered in Iraq and Syria forming the foundation of this new Islamic state.   Unlike America, IS has a strategic objective -- a Worldwide Caliphate -- Islamic rule over the entire globe.  Every good caliphate needs a caliph; Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is theirs.  Lest Obama say he’s not Islamic, intelligence analysts say he has a BA, MA, and PhD in Islamic studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad.

As Dr. Sebastian Gorka recently wrote, “The spread of ISIS influence is not just about territorial control, it is about the staggering success of its international call to holy war, with an estimated 19,000 westerners having left their homes to wage jihad.”  They’ve been joined by followers from over 90 countries.   They’re also gaining the loyalties of numerous other Islamic franchises.  The most recent being Africa’s Boko Haram.  Further, the FBI reports there are active investigations into ISIS related activity in all fifty of the United States. 

    

A recent must-read piece in The Atlantic by Canadian journalist Graeme Wood titled “What ISIS Really Wants” is a comprehensive primer on the Islamic State.  It also warns the reader against underestimating the tremendous threat their ideology represents.   Sadly, the article points out President Obama is the poster child for denial.  His “jayvee” comment and insistence that they’re not Islamic being delusional and dangerous. 
   

Wood is clear, “The reality is that the Islamic State is Islamic. Very Islamic…the religion preached by its most ardent followers derives from coherent and even learned interpretations of Islam.”  In fact, they go to great lengths to be true to Islamic teaching,   “Virtually every major decision and law promulgated by the Islamic State adheres to what it calls…‘the Prophetic methodology,’ which means following the prophecy and example of Muhammad, in punctilious detail.”

Dr. Gorka explains, “Religion is so important to this war that it even defines the way in which the terrorists will kill you.”   Gorka uses the beheadings of infidels as a case in point, “the Koran teaches, the infidel must be ‘smitten on the neck’ (Koran Ch. 47 V. 4).”  When they killed Lt. Kaseasbeh, the Jordanian Muslim pilot, they dealt with him as an ‘apostate.’ Thus, “he had to be killed not as an infidel but as one who committed the sin of leaving Islam and therefore, he was to be treated as if he were in hell, i.e. burnt alive.”   

Princeton scholar Bernard Haykel, the leading expert on the group’s theology explains, “People want to absolve Islam…it’s this ‘Islam is a religion of peace’ mantra…Slavery, crucifixion, and beheadings are not something that freakish jihadists are cherry-picking from the medieval tradition.”  Islamic State fighters “are smack in the middle of the medieval tradition and are bringing it wholesale into the present day.”  

Perhaps most interesting – their eschatology.  The caliphate expands -- some believe it will cover the entire Earth.  Then “an anti-Messiah, known in Muslim apocalyptic literature as Dajjal, will come from the Khorasan region of eastern Iran and kill a vast number of the caliphate’s fighters, until just 5,000 remain, cornered in Jerusalem. Just as Dajjal prepares to finish them off, Jesus—the second-most-revered prophet in Islam—will return to Earth, spear Dajjal, and lead the Muslims to victory.”

Now, if only the Obama administration can convince the Islamic State that climate change is the biggest threat the world is facing today.