I know we're all alarmed beyond beyond words with the string of terrorist attacks in Europe in recent weeks. At the rate the ISIS fiends are going, I'm sure there will be more to come, maybe even before this goes to print.
I would like to say that ISIS, and its copycat or affiliate terrorist organizations, has been the worst and most barbaric war machine in the history of mankind. Yes, I would like to say that, but it would be untrue. Not only untrue, but not even close by a long shot.
Your understanding of history, of course, would suggest otherwise. Consider the millions upon millions of humans that have been slaughtered by their fellow-countrymen over the past, oh, 100 years. Pick your country, pick your villain: Germany, China, Russia, Korea, Turkey, Mexico, Serbia, Bosnia, Cambodia, just for starters.
These bloodbaths, based on ideology , ethnicity, and skin colour, are actually more like a bloodriver (new word; don't use it in essay or a speech, unless you absolutely have to—like I did).
These "bloodrivers" generally flowed within a set geographical area. Sometimes they were limited to a country (eg., Turkey); sometimes it was expanded to a larger region (eg. Germany in Eastern Europe). There seemed to be no set agenda to spread it out around the world.
And then there is this newest monster on the block: ISIS and its associates (say, in Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, or the Philippines) are no longer bound by the same rules of engagement. If there was such a thing as morality or ethics in warfare, ISIS certainly made short work of it.
Unlike others, ISIS is waging a religious war, and that takes things to a new low. But with their warped religious perspective, no one is safe anymore.
I suggest that, with a balanced religious perspective, everyone should be safe forever.
I don't think they are more barbaric than Stalin or Hitler; maybe even less. With such easy access to the social media world, the public can see the atrocities sooner and clearer than any other time in the history of mankind.
I can assure you, for example, that what our white-skinned "kindred spirits" in Germany did to the Jews, gays, handicapped, and Gypsies was as bad, if not worse.
Where they are different is their strategy: Whereas most of the other monsters had geographical boundaries, ISIS seems to have no boundaries—literally and figuratively. The whole world, then, is their war zone.
For the longest time, the ISIS "bloodriver" (still a little awkward but useful) was limited to Iraq and Syria. Its affiliates were elsewhere, but ISIS was not, until recent months.
And this the rub, and a very serious rub at that. It's says "we ain't seen nothing yet."
I don't believe we've seen anything yet, in terms of the bloody carnage that ISIS will create. And as we're seeing in Belgium, France, Germany, and England (seemingly on a weekly basis) , to say nothing of what has happened in the States, no one country (at least in the western world) is immune from such barbarianism.
Mobile targets and shifting venues will be the strategy of ISIS from henceforth. Being blasted by Russian and American fighter jets continues to decimate the ISIS ground forces over there. Thus, ISIS has shifted to over here, with their targets being international airports, concert halls, farmer's markets, and pedestrian walkways.
It's a matter of time before they will maximize their carnage and attack sports venues, shopping centres, or mega-churches. This new tactic defies reason and predictability. Perhaps the most despicable part of this is that almost all the victims are innocent civilians.
It seems that when good religion rules and motivates, there's nothing like it; but when bad religion rules and motivates, well, there's likewise nothing like it.
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