Perhaps the Obama Administration should read a recent survey conducted by Al Jazeera that found 81% of the Arabs polled saying they support The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)/The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
ISIS has a much stronger level of support than our own government. Politicians in our nation would be in tall cotton if they had 81% approval; President Bill Clinton once famously said if he had a 62% approval rate he could do anything he wished.
The 81% approval came after the reports in Al Jazeera saying ISIS/ISIL murdered (shot and beheaded without trial) more than 400 noncombatants in Palmyra Syria, mostly women and children. The report by Al Jazeera also covered the deliberate destruction of historical and religious artifacts throughout the city. Reports of hundreds of people being beaten and publicly humiliated because they were deemed not properly Islamic did not appear to harm ISIS approval rating.
The apathy found in Americans of every political stripe toward the threat of ISIL/ISIS is apparent and widespread; even the liberal press failed to report the fact that the attack by ISIS on Palmyra Syria has caused catastrophic damage to the Northern Bald Ibis, an endangered species of bird. Four hundred innocent women and children being murdered appears to not upset the left, but if they were told of the destruction of an endangered bird was at hand, Starbucks nationwide would empty and people would be in the streets calling for action.
President Barack Obama needs to call a spade a shovel and just say ISIS is an Islamic terrorist group. Who makes up the Levant? Not Southern Baptists or members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but Shia Muslims. They will kill Christians who refuse to convert or pay a special tax and post the gruesome deaths online to the cheers and approval of 81% of Arabs polled by Al Jazeera.
Every day we do nothing, ISIS/ISIL grows stronger and the long-term threat grows. The terrorists are becoming better trained and disciplined; every day we allow them to survive unmolested in an area the size of Michigan. They graduate hundreds of trained terrorists and send them worldwide to await the call by Allah to jihad.
The seeds of hate planted in a generation of Muslims by this terrorist group will be harvested for the next two generations. Friends and neighbors, do not take lightly the fact ISIS has an 81% approval rating; this should scare the crap out of us. Nothing succeeds like success, and ISIS is seen as being wildly successful by the Islamic world.
The Battle of Ramadi was a masterpiece of discipline, communications and coordination. It took a well-trained, well-led military to attack a superior force and defeat it soundly. The ISIS forces conducted operations that decapitated the Iraqi leadership with massive truck bombs followed by aggressive attacks on a force superior in number but confused and leaderless.
The American government’s policy of not allowing advisors at Battalion and Company level in the Iraqi Army doomed the citizens of Ramadi.
The loyalty of military people to our government is something we take for granted, but in many countries loyalty to tribe or religion or region is vastly superior to loyalty to a government. Our concept of government of the people, by the people and for the people, is not the norm in the world. The majority of the folks in the world looked at government as an institution meant to keep the monarch or emperor in power and to control the citizens, not to help or protect them.
ISIS using Islam as the glue to bond the people to them is an easier sell to the masses than nationalism. People in the Mideast have little loyalty to government, but they do to Islam. Placing my life in jeopardy for Christianity is something I have never contemplated. Placi
ng my life on the line for my nation is something I accepted as a young man and I accept even as an old man.
Americans are a tapestry of many parts: religions, nationalities of origin, races and tribes. We are a mixture of the world’s people with nationalism as our center. Most people in the world do not share our love of country. Most people in the world are more willing to die for tribe or religion than a nation.
Take the 81% approval rating for ISIS extremely seriously because your grandchildren will need to deal with the threat in years to come.
