Turns out ISIL was the smartest group in the room.
I wouldn’t have thought so. I felt like the media banter about how slick ISIL was seemed more like media propaganda to prop up a story that wasn’t really that important to me. This isn’t the first group to run rampant through the thousand or so mile stretch of the middle east. No, what made these guys special was a handful of crafty dudes with an Adobe package or just straight up iMovie and some rudimentary film making skills. Jihadi John raised the stakes a bit before succumbing to the age old American trap of becoming the storyline for an episode of a TV Drama (this time it was Madam Secretary instead of Law and Order or even Scandal). All of the things the group was doing felt more like an infant’s flailing about than any sort of coordinated plan.
How wrong we were.
See, the first wave let us know they were there and had potential. The second wave showed us they had the military prowess to wage a legitimate ground campaign against the Syrian army. The third wave is the one that really matters. The third wave is happening now. The group has staged a staccato flurry of highly visible terror attacks designed, primarily, to wake up the countries that were hit and force them to take action. Why? Why rile up everyone around you to start beating the war drums and eventually beat your ass? Well, here is the truly devious part: They did it because they wanted everyone to start swinging at them.
Follow me here: So, you set off a bunch of nations to start attacking you. Eventually those nations run afoul of each other and someone gets hurt in the process. What happens then? Well those nations that were about attacking you are suddenly looking at each other as a larger and more present threat. Sadly, it worked. Recently the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian fighter plane. The Russian pilots were reportedly murdered as they floated to the ground on parachutes. In a perfect world there would be apologies and a renewed interest in working together against a common foe, but this is Putin we are talking about. There will be justice before long.
So, now we need to wait for the other show to drop and see what will become of the coalition of the willing as we confront a battle that might be quickly spiraling out of control. In fights like these the only people who win are the ones who want chaos. In other words, the only people that win are ISIL.