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Question of the Day: The Fall of Raqqa
The US military has confirmed that 90 percent of Raqqa has been liberated from ISIS. The terror group used the Syrian city as their headquarters. The loss of their capital adds to their string of defeats, including Mosul and a severe cash crunch for the organization.
The Question of the Day: Is ISIS dead?
The Ricochet Question of the Day poses a question about the news, then at the end of the day, we’ll post the best comments. Join the conversation!
Published in General
No. Not yet.
It is like a doused forest fire. Embers remain which can bring it back to life if left alone. To make sure it is truly dead you have to keep monitoring it for at least five years, stomping out any re-emergence. If this is done it will die for good. Otherwise it will reconstitute.
That is the problem. The US never has the patience to keep watching and stomping, even when the resources devoted to stomping it dead are minimal.
Seawriter
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is supposedly the ISIS leader. His death, which I am not sure is confirmed, would be an important help in assuring the end of ISIS. If he is still alive, so is ISIS.
I am almost sad to see it go. The ‘caliphate’ was such a horror show that it greatly diminished the fantasy appeal of a shariah paradise. Now, ISIS/Al Qaeda /Al Whatever can return to being a loosely organized destructive force without the administrative burdens of governance. They will continue to be fueled by the resentments and twisted religious perspectives of people trapped in a failed culture.
It seems no movement is ever completely dead. North Korea believes in completely eradicating any opposition and it is brutal because it includes family members of the accused. Trump said he wanted to take that route during the debates, tracking down family members of terrorists, and was roundly trashed for that approach. We don’t eradicate enemies root and branch, or set up permanent residency to oversee the peace. We leave little shoots to grow up either into the same or a variant of the original problem.
Is the bakery rid of cockroaches? Maybe for now. However, it will require perpetual vigilance. As long as Islam exists, some form of ISIS or jihad will be with us. As with the cockroaches, they can only be kept in check. In other words, nope, never.
Dead? Most certainly not. It has lost the base of its “caliphate”, but its members continue to disperse through the population of Europe and Africa. It has a recruiting presence on the Internet, and this does not stop that; in fact, I predict that more resources will be directed at recruiting online, where their costs are minimal and their reach is world-wide. Their goal remains world domination, and they have proven to be very patient. Nations of the world, watch your borders and pay attention to all those “refugees”; many are deadly.
ISIS will never be dead. It will be beaten up, deprived of money, mutilated and attacked, but like weeds, will forever be part of the landscape. We may diminish its power for a while, but we will need to be vigilant, because it will still nurse its roots underground and eventually show up in abundance. So it is, and so it will be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs
not sick, could get better
Does it matter? If not ISIS, then some other Islamist group will form/become prominent.
No. ISIS (like other extremist groups) are like cancer: You may be cancer-free but a watchful eye is needed because it can spring up elsewhere.
No. ISIS (like other extremist groups) are like cancer: Your cancer may be in remission but a watchful eye is needed because it can spring up elsewhere.