Latest mass shooting in France

[CapnAwesome]

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Will ISIS attacks like this be a permanent fixture in our world, despite their wide scale defeat in the middle east?

Not 'despite', more like 'because of'.   ISIS' battlefield setbacks are more likely to foster an increase in small, deadly attacks like the one mention, primarily because they no longer have the resources to do much else.

Boru

[CapnAwesome]

Will ISIS attacks like this be a permanent fixture in our world, despite their wide scale defeat in the middle east?

Not 'despite', more like 'because of'.   ISIS' battlefield setbacks are more likely to foster an increase in small, deadly attacks like the one mention, primarily because they no longer have the resources to do much else.

Boru

Could you expand on this idea maybe? You could be right. I would think that the battlefield defeats would demoralized though, since obviously the caliphate isn't happening.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Sure.

If you have hundreds of tanks, planes, machine guns, rocket launchers and the like, but Westerners break most of them, you are no longer able to mount major battlefield operations.  However, being a religious fanatic, you have to do something, but your options are limited to things like attacking French supermarkets.

FYI, religious loonies never, EVER get demoralized.  Defeat after defeat after defeat simply tells them that their faith isn't strong enough, so they need to do even more to prove themselves to God.  And - in their minds - the caliphate IS going to happen, they are merely being tested by Allah.

Boru

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Allied forces feared this kind of thing in Japan if the Emperor wasn't able to give the country orders. A guerilla war would have lasted a good long time, I believe, as witness the one soldier who didn't surrender for decades.

[Edwardo Piet]

Not 'despite', more like 'because of'.   ISIS' battlefield setbacks are more likely to foster an increase in small, deadly attacks like the one mention, primarily because they no longer have the resources to do much else.

Boru

Could you expand on this idea maybe? You could be right. I would think that the battlefield defeats would demoralized though, since obviously the caliphate isn't happening.

When you think your acts are going to get you into heaven to meet 72 virgins for being a hero... it's hard to be demoralized. When you think you're on a mission from God... it's hard to be demoralized.

Unfortunately. People die and kill for ideas. And religious ideas give people an even stronger motivation than political ideas, because religious ideas give people the feeling that they will rewarded AFTER they die.

[rskovride]

Yep, its the idea that must be defeated not only the battlefield soldiers. Also, maybe if Harris was not a public personality (ans subject to the ethics police) he would be for a stronger physical deterrent, something more pragmatic.

[CapnAwesome]

Yep, its the idea that must be defeated not only the battlefield soldiers. Also, maybe if Harris was not a public personality (ans subject to the ethics police) he would be for a stronger physical deterrent, something more pragmatic.

I agree, and it's really up to more moderate muslims as well. ISIS isn't going to listen to sam harris

[Catholic_Lady]

Ugh, I hate isis so much ...

[Edwardo Piet]

Yep, its the idea that must be defeated not only the battlefield soldiers.  Also, maybe if Harris was not a public personality (ans subject to the ethics police) he would be for a stronger physical deterrent, something more pragmatic.

I agree, and it's really up to more moderate muslims as well. ISIS isn't going to listen to sam harris

And I doubt even the moderate muslims would listen. But maybe non-muslim friends of moderate muslims would.

Moderate muslims give cover for the extreme muslims (and even many 'moderate' muslims aren't exactly moderate in the same way moderate Christians are). And this is a big part of the problem. ISIS isn't going to listen to anyone directly, this is a deeper problem that will hopefully one day be solved farther into the future, by just the whole culture in general slowly becoming more moderate, kind of like what happened to Christianity. Christianity was barbaric hundreds of years ago: Think of the crusades. Muslim culture is just hundreds of years behind.

---

FYI, religious loonies never, EVER get demoralized.  Defeat after defeat after defeat simply tells them that their faith isn't strong enough, so they need to do even more to prove themselves to God.  And - in their minds - the caliphate IS going to happen, they are merely being tested by Allah.

Right. And even if they die they think they died a hero and will get a reward in heaven. They think that regardless what happens, they can't possibly lose, as long as they do everything they can to kill the enemies of Allah or die trying.