How to respond to religious-based violence?

[Kielbasa]

I think non-killers have a high ground over killers of innocents, and killing innocents is not comparable to a child's temper tantrum. So I'm calling false analogy.

What would you do, given the power and means to do something? Nothing?

...though I'm not sure cutting access to social media would be a good idea. A lack of communication is part of what causes these messes in the first place. Cutting off travel isn't good, either, and a propaganda campaign is just asking for trouble.

...in fact, except for the cutting off of money and arms supplies, and the education campaign, I'm not sure any of those are specifically a good idea.

You should just stop after saying "not sure". You would dither around and let bad people kill everyone around you, and presumably you as well, all so that you wouldn't sink to their level. Bravo!

Once they run out of bullets, they'll all just sit for a nice game of Parchesi?

 

[Kielbasa]

I'd call it more monarchist than totalitarian, but sure.

Who's the monarch- al Baghdadi?

I personally see no reason for an American response. Not on the North American continent, not our problem.

Yet. It was our fumbling in the Middle East and Afghanistan in the mid-late 1980s that spawned al Qaeda. The problem is that we never see anything through. If we killed every last al Qaeda terrorist we won't hear from them again. If we leave ISIS alone, they'll find some excuse to launch an attack here (e.g. funding Israel, Egypt, Pakistan)

1) I think you are conflating ideology with the goals of a nascent nation-state.

Maybe I just don't want to wait around to find out. Also, the United States is responsible in large part for the creation of that nascent nation-state.

2) That's really up to the adherents of that ideology.

True.

 

[sandandfoam]

Do you have statistical evidence of this, or do you just think that the US intervening in conflicts to keep bad guys from murdering peace-loving peoples with machetes is bad behavior?

Different question. The US military certainly has acted irresponsibly, but at least the civilians it has killed has been out of oversight and negligence, not insane testosterone-fueled greedy hornyness for their God.

The US put murderous madmen like Pinochet into power in Chile and elsewhere. Look at the history of US backed torture and murder in South America.
Nicaragua where the US gave massive backing to the Contras

Americas Watch – which subsequently became part of Human Rights Watch – accused the Contras of:[61]

• targeting health care clinics and health care workers for assassination[62]
• kidnapping civilians[63]
• torturing civilians[64]
• executing civilians, including children, who were captured in combat[65]
• raping women[62]
• indiscriminately attacking civilians and civilian houses[63]
• seizing civilian property[62]
• burning civilian houses in captured towns.[62]

Human Rights Watch released a report on the situation in 1989, which stated: "[The] contras were major and systematic violators of the most basic standards of the laws of armed conflict, including by launching indiscriminate attacks on civilians, selectively murdering non-combatants, and mistreating prisoners."[66]
In his affidavit to the World Court, former contra Edgar Chamorro testified that "The CIA did not discourage such tactics. To the contrary, the Agency severely criticized me when I admitted to the press that the FDN had regularly kidnapped and executed agrarian reform workers and civilians. We were told that the only way to defeat the Sandinistas was to...kill, kidnap, rob and torture..."[67]

source Contras - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This was repeated all over South America. These new terrorists are only trotting after what the CIA has instigated over the years.

 

[Riverwolf]

You should just stop after saying "not sure". You would dither around and let bad people kill everyone around you, and presumably you as well, all so that you wouldn't sink to their level. Bravo!

Once they run out of bullets, they'll all just sit for a nice game of Parchesi?

What's funniest about this post is that I asked the exact same thing of you: would you do nothing? That is, would YOU just dither around and let bad people etc. etc?

I'm not sure if you missed that part, misunderstood it, or just forgot about it. But instead of asking a question clarifying my views, you went on to state exactly what my position is to me, as if you're in any position to know my opinion better than I am.

Not very good debating.

For the record, I'm NOT in favor of inaction by those with the power to act effectively.

But I will ask you this: can you split yourself into a thousand individuals?

 

[Kielbasa]

The US put murderous madmen like Pinochet into power in Chile and elsewhere. Look at the history of US backed torture and murder in South America.
Nicaragua where the US gave massive backing to the Contras source Contras - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This was repeated all over South America. These new terrorists are only trotting after what the CIA has instigated over the years.

Sometimes a brutal dictator is preferable to warring groups. It provides stability and predictability. Who in the world wouldn't prefer Mubarak or Saddam to what's going on in Egypt and Iraq today?

Iraq will eventually transform into this Islamic Caliphate, because they simply care about it more than the rest of the world. We can fight them for 3-6 years, but they're prepared to do it longer, and in a much bloodier way.

 

[Skeptisch]

Look at the history of US backed torture and murder in South America.

U.S. Interventions - 1945 to the Present William Blum

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Respond by removing the qualifier "religious" from the violence. It's just violence. A War God (not Islam's God) now reigns in that region: there will be just violence there for a while yet.

For those of us who do not know how to fight, we must simply avoid it. But if they attack, we defend. But the War God expects us to do likewise.

I have heard it said that Ares would join whatever battle he saw. (Ares is not likely the God involved, but hear me out). He didn't care about sides, and would join in the slaughter, not caring where his sword landed. He relished in the blood and carnage: as long as both sides were killing each other aggressively, he had power.

But another God who has a lot of power here is a relatively younger one: the Straw Man. He impersonates another and makes enemies of friends, leading us to conflict. The Straw Man has ISIS tight in his grip, and he also seeks to make us think all Muslims are like this.

Geez... unfortunate name. ISIS, huh? Isis have mercy on them. Oh, they're murderers? Never mind: Isis curse them all. ... I'm not Egyptian, Kemetic, or Syncretic with the Kemetic Gods, and thus can't invoke Isis? Darn it. Can't invoke my Gods to curse them, either: those of them who're killed in combat will be in Valhalla or Folkvang, drinking and feasting right alongside the fighters they kill, since the Aesir don't particularly care about our politics. Oh, well. I guess I can just hope they get the smallest table.

I don't worship Isis, either, but I see it as definitely being allowable for anyone to hope that Isis curses them for so disrespecting Her sacred name.

 

[gnostic]

For starters - If I could I would:
Cut off their access to social and other media.
I would seize the passports of those with plans to travel.
I would close down radical clerics.
Cut off the money and supplies of arms.
I would embark on a serious education and propaganda campaign.
I would gather the best heads together and figure out how these things and more can be done.
That's off the top of my head.

That's all easily said than done.

If you think that's gonna stop the killing than you can continue to live in fantasy-land, with your head in the sand.

 

[Yeshe Dondrub]

More violence will result in more go driven violence. Escape from it and reflect compassion. Don't judge all Muslims by ISIS and radicle, some escaped it themselves.

On a world front it won't be allowed, so there will still be conflict, until Muslim extremists let go of clouded ego and desires, there will still be conflict while they hold such clouded views. They are seeking a solution that will never be a solution, and has not been even in Islamic nations.

As reflection of positive actions and thought gain strength, eventually their power will diminish and even within themselves, separation will continue.