September 11, 2014

Psychopaths... True Believers... and Sunni Pragmatists....

The 3 faces of ISIS.
[M]aniacal killers with more taste for grindhouse than for Islamic jurisprudence... the Psychopaths...

True Believers... drawn to the caliph himself... out of an inalterable sense of authentic religious obligation....

Sunni Pragmatists... a desire to win security and well-being... [some are] ex-Baathists... [some] tribal sheikhs, who occupy the large, sparsely populated western Iraqi province of Anbar... During the U.S. occupation, the Anbar sheikhs enjoyed vast amounts of CIA money, as well as trucking contracts, and (under the Sons of Iraq program) government funds for their tribal militias. But since the Americans left Iraq and began dealing only with the Maliki government, they have been shut out of politics and oil revenue.

16 comments:

cubanbob said...

Sunni Pragmatists... a desire to win security and well-being... [some are] ex-Baathists... [some] tribal sheikhs, who occupy the large, sparsely populated western Iraqi province of Anbar... During the U.S. occupation, the Anbar sheikhs enjoyed vast amounts of CIA money, as well as trucking contracts, and (under the Sons of Iraq program) government funds for their tribal militias. But since the Americans left Iraq and began dealing only with the Maliki government, they have been shut out of politics and oil revenue"

Thanks to the brilliant foreign policy of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Congressional Democrats we no longer have these Arab rent boys on our side keeping the other two groups at bay.
Now if only we had pushed the issue of a status of forces agreement and had kept the forces needed there this wouldn't be happening today.

Anonymous said...

Not three groups. The True Believers and the Sunni Pragmatists are subsets of the Psychopaths.

Wince said...

I think of the "Psychopaths" more in terms of soldiers of fortune, western malcontents who see their remote heritage as giving them useful pedigree and wishing to prove their fervor in order to get in on a ground floor opportunity for power unavailable elsewhere due to their unremarkable talents.

Like obtaining a single digit ID card at Apple or Google.

PB said...

Someone else said, "Obama's bringing counter terrorism to an insurgency. It's like bringing a knife to a gun fight."

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Oh, ISIS! Not Wisconsin Democrats...

Drago said...

Blacks invented pragmatism.

Michael K said...

The Baathist generals who fled to Syria in 2003 are running the campaign but the guys getting killed are the psychos. Lenin was obsessed with military terms and concepts but he had no interest in the people he was directing. These men are his heirs.

Obama has no idea what he faces now that he has let the genie out of the bottle.

Bush, at least, had a plan and listened to advisors.

James Pawlak said...

The supporters of ISIS/ISO are totally ORTHODOX as their actions "execute" the exact teachings of that fellow Mohammed. Any denial of that fact is either an aggravated expression of ignorance OR an like act of treason against reality.

James Pawlak said...

The supporters of ISIS/ISO are totally ORTHODOX as their actions "execute" the exact teachings of that fellow Mohammed. Any denial of that fact is either an aggravated expression of ignorance OR an like act of treason against reality.

Larry J said...

So Obama has announced what some are calling "Operation Rolling Blunder." As is always the case with him, watch what he does, not what he says. His one-note symphony of Yet Another Speech, Signifying Nothing is way past the point of being tiresome.

gerry said...

Ah, The New Republic, kissing Obama butt on the Sunni side of the street.

Quaestor said...

Ah, The New Republic, kissing Obama butt on the Sunni side of the street.

That may be TNR's intent now, as it has been since, well, forever... However by their admission that ISIS hosts in its ranks true believers, presumably Muslim true believers, The New Republic has soundly refuted Obama's absurd claim that ISIS (or ISIL) is devoid of Islamic authenticity.

The question that goes begging is this: Who does Obama think he's kidding?

lgv said...

I don't see the first two groups as mutually exclusive. I see the true believers as a bunch of psychopaths. They are just smart ones that can get the dumb ones to wear bombs and die for the cause first.

Anonymous said...

Sounds pretty good to me.

The Psychopaths often have more to prove, and hear the siren song. There are folks from all over the region, and I've heard a lot of Tunisians joining the fight for some reason. Glory, women slaves, boredom, religious conviction, bloodlust, honor, adventure immaturity ideology etc. There are enough to filter in from the West as well, as it doesn't take much to cause big trouble.

The Sunnis haven't been right since we got rid of Saddam, and think they ought to be in charge no matter what. His Ba'ath party has many fascistic elements and the Baathists were kept down in Syria under the Assads. They were key to the surge and the Anbar awakening.

The religious purists are probably more like the true Islamic revivalists, zealous and potentially crazy enough but who will side with IS for an Islamic restoration. There are folks of all stripes across the region who were put and kept down by usually secular autocratic military types and generations deep ruling families, tribes and ethnic groups.

Most Muslims aren't crazy Islamist guerrilla fighters and holy warrior terrorists, but there's a lot of anti-modern, anti-Western, pro Idlamic sentiment going on. A lot of confusion.

High birth rates, weak economies and poorly functioning governments atop a high honor ethic and more comfortable with warrior type religion which demands submission but keeps tribes, ethnic groups, families and ancient histories and Hatreds in check.

Cedarford said...

cubanbob - "
Thanks to the brilliant foreign policy of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Congressional Democrats we no longer have these Arab rent boys on our side keeping the other two groups at bay"

================
The original mega-blunder was by the Bushies. Led by the Moron in Chief, convinced if he gave majority rule to the Shiites, why the Sunnis would just be happy to go along. And of course, the 3 institutions that were the source of Sunni control had to be destroyed, rebuilt for 100s of billions Bush and the neocon scum borrowed from China.
That would be the Bureaucracy destroyed by de-Ba'athification, the disbanding and then removal of Sunnis fron military service. And of course, transfer of oil revenue to Malaki, Chalabi, Sadr's gangs.

Bush set it in motion, and like the Wall Street crooks and the trillions their antics cost the nation, handed the whole steaming pile of shit to Obama and the Democrats.

The Crack Emcee said...

Until I saw "Sunni Pragmatists" I was sure you were describing conservatives,...