Things will undoubtedly change, at least a
little on the surface, now that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.
But fundamentally, nothing will change
until there will be a corresponding change in the root causes that give rise to
movements such as ISIS, Al-Qaeda, al-Shabab, Boko Haram and others. These are
movements that sprung up in places that stretch on the Globe from the Far East
to Western Africa. They are led by young men who are so savvy in the use of
cyberspace, they propagate their ideology and recruit other youngsters from
North America down to South Africa.
The worldview of the leaders that preside
over these movements, boils down to the simplistic belief that America was
assigned the task of leading a military campaign to destroy Islam and all
Muslims. Those leaders are convinced that Judeo-Christianity's ultimate goal is
to replace Islam in the places that the latter conquered long ago and keeps
under its control to this day.
And so, in the same way that al-Qaeda did
not die when Usama Bin Laden was killed, ISIS will not die just because
al-Baghdadi was killed. Youngsters who are given good or false reasons to
believe that Judeo-Christianity has mandated America to kill them and take their
possessions the way that the Jews of Israel are killing Palestinians and taking
their possessions –– will continue to fight, prepared to die for the cause. And
they will do so the only way they know how, which is to rely on the weapons
they will gather from anywhere they can procure them, to the weapons they will
improvise on the battlefield.
What then should America and the West do,
or refrain from doing to convince potential future recruits who may be lured by
those movements, that they are not targeted for annihilation, and neither is
their religion? Well, if you go by the literature that has been produced so
far, you'll find that very little was put forward in this regard. An example
will be discussed in a moment, showing how the subject is dealt with at this
time.
Meanwhile, those who keep an eye on this
kind of matters know that sooner or later, the self-described hawks in America
will jump into the fray and suggest all kinds of harsh measures aimed at
continuing the war on what they will call terrorism when in reality, they mean
war on Islam. If their measures are implemented, they will amount to the worst
thing that America did. That's because such actions will tell the Muslim
youngsters that it is true, America is coming after them and their possessions
the way that the Jews are going after the Palestinians and their Palestine.
As to the example that concerns how the
subject is handled at this time, an article doing just that, came under the
title: “Baghdadi is dead,” and the subtitle: “Does that mean ISIS Dies with
him?” It was written by Daniel R. DePetris, and was published on October 27,
2018 in The National Interest. Here is the pertinent passage that reveals the
pundit's own opinion:
“ISIS's leadership was prepared for the
time when their so-called caliphate was burned to the ground, and their
fighters have responded by transforming into a classic insurgency. The Pentagon
assesses that 14,000-18,000 ISIS militants are still operating in Iraq and
Syria”.
This means that among the body of opinion
makers in America, no serious strategy has taken shape yet concerning what to
do next. This being the case, it would be a good idea for those who prefer to
advance America's interests at home rather than seek false glory abroad, to
start laying the groundwork for creating a paradigm that will inform the
leaders of America the world will be safer if they discard the fantasy that
evil lurks inside every soul that refuses to worship the deity they call
Democracy.
Those that have America's interest at
heart could begin by studying the relationship that brought together the form
of governance known as Democracy, with the Industrial Revolution and
Colonialism. This will help them see that Democracy is fast becoming
anachronistic by the fact that the original Industrial Revolution has been so
updated, it no longer influences our lives –– and by the fact that today,
Colonialism is viewed as a reviled phenomenon. In fact, Democracy has lost the
two legs on which it once stood.
These people will understand that what's
happening in the world at this time, is a series of experiments with new forms
of governance. Out of these experiments, one will most certainly triumph, and
everyone in the world will want to emulate it. As to the forms of governance that
did not make it, they will quietly fade away.
If America views this phenomenon with
trepidation and decides to fight it, America will end up being the odd-man-out
and a big loser. What America must do instead, is keep its current form of
government and watch with interest what happens in the other places.
In the end, America will most likely find
that it will only need to do minor adjustments to its form of governance to get
in sync with the rest of the world.