Top US Commander Says IS Actively Recruiting In Afghanistan

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- The commander of international forces in Afghanistan says the Islamic State group is actively recruiting in Afghanistan but is not yet operational there.

General John F. Campbell said on Saturday the group's sophisticated social media campaign is attracting Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and Pakistan who are disgruntled with the lack of progress in more than 10 years of fighting to overthrow the Kabul government.

He says many are pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, which controls about a third of Syria and Iraq.

"It is absolutely a concern" Campbell says, though his statement contradicts some Afghan officials who have said the group is fighting in a number of regions in Afghanistan.

Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_AFGHANISTAN_ISLAMIC_STATE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-05-23-10-58-13

[Fournier]

1. Religious craziness is contagious.

ISIS is also very well organized. Not all forms of craziness are chaotic.

[Human101948]

2. Be afraid! Be very afraid!

Who gives a shit?

[Purveyor]

3. The men and women of the US military that, at the end of the day will be called upon to fight these

bastards...

ISIS isn't going away be itself.

[Human101948]

5. And after we lose another 4,000 we will find out that ISIS was a CIA creation...

The best thing would be to not worry about them.

Who cares if it doesn't go away by itself?

This concern about ISIS is another excuse for fulfilling neocon wet dreams of world domination. Can we not learn from past mistakes?

[Marrah_G]

13. Actually, Isis will become an issue if they take over a country with nukes

Like Pakistan. Not as much of a problem for us as it will be for the Middle East and Asia, especially India.

I do think we need to get out of there and I do think that the rest of the Islamic countries in the area need to step up and stop them before they get too big to stop.

[cosmicone]

4. A lot of moderate civilians whose daughters and wives will be raped

and sons killed. They will then be subjected to harsh and brutal existence, killed if they are educated.

They do give a shit.

[Human101948]

6. So that justifies massive US intervention?

You are being sucked into the propaganda.

There is brutality taking place in virtually every corner of the globe. Why is it we are only concerned about the Middle East? Oil perhaps?

[Psephos]

9. Why do lines on a map determine who does or does not deserve compassion? n/t

[cosmicone]

7. Pussy footing around ISIS is stupid

It is a much bigger threat than Russia, China or Al Q'aeda.

ISIS sympathizers, supporters, funders, recruiters and priests should all be exterminated no matter how many. Massive firepower to annihilate this vermin is needed.

If we don't do this, hundreds of thousands of women will be raped and enslaved and lots of moderate muslims subjected to a genocide.

[Human101948]

8. I heard they were dumping babies out of incubators!

And then they ate the babies!

[cosmicone]

12. It is insensitive to compare a fake story with

real brutality faced by the Yazidi women, the Kurds and the Christians of Iraq.

You want to try to crack a joke about beheadings as well or have you lost your head?

[Human101948]

16. Brutality is happening all over the world...

why is this instance so important?

"If, however, you took a step out of the overwrought American universe of terror threats for thirty seconds, it couldn’t have been clearer that everyone in the grim netherworld of the Middle East now seemed to have our number. The beheading videos of the Islamic State had clearly been meant to cause hysteria on the cheap in this country—and they worked. Those first two videos somehow committed us to a war now predicted to last for years, and a never-ending bombing campaign that we know perfectly well will establish the global credentials of the Islamic State and its mad caliph in jihadist circles. (In fact, the evidence is already in. From North Africa to Afghanistan to Pakistan, the group is suddenly a brand name, its black flag something to hoist and its style of beheading something to be imitated.)"

http://www.thenation.com/article/181880/no-isis-not-threat-us

[Psephos]

10. No worries, they're just the "Junior Varsity." n/t

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. Only because Al Qaeda isn't scary enough anymore....

Americans don't care about a bunch of guys driving around in Toyota pickup trucks from the 80s.

Worry when the population greets them as liberators. They are universally despised by the population for their fanaticism.

[Larry Engels]

15. "Exterminated"?

I find the use of that word in connection with human beings deeply offensive. "Extermination" of people is what Hitler did to Jews.

[Judi Lynn]

17. Same here. Disgusted, repulsed immediately upon seeing it. Loathesome. n/t

[cosmicone]

28. We are not talking about innocent, peaceful human beings

We are talking about murderers, rapists, kidnappers, beheaders, slave masters, people holding others for ransom and generally extremely violent people.

Exterminate means "destroy completely" and no need to invoke Godwin's law. You are not serious when you're equating European Jews with ISIS people are you?

Would you have liked "extirpate" or "eradicate" better than exterminate?

[romanic]

22. To be honest

I'm beginning to agree, ISIS needs to be stopped dead in it's tracks before it embroils the Middle East into complete chaos.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

11. Obama calls it "Daesh" now....

"Daesh" (dash) is the pronunciation of the acronym for ISIS in Arabic but it also sounds like the Arabic word "daes" which means to crush something under one's foot which is a major insult to them.

[daleo]

21. Rebranding, an advertiser's answer to every problem

Maybe we will get Daesh and ISIS Classic eventually.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

23. Diet Cherry al Qaeda.

[merrily]

18. Duh?

[bemildred]

19. Yeah, it's like it is spreading or something.

[libdem4life]

20. Imagine...we kill people for killing people and make more enemies and the next group is more angry

than the last six and will continue to grow. It's the Hydra Effect...cut of one head or tentacle, and two arise. Sorry, Obama is no Hercules.

And if we don't want Pakistan to get or use The Bomb, then we go get it from them...not invoke their holy name when justifying more futile and very expensive tentacle-chopping with our best and brightest young men and woman getting killed, maimed, PTSD. Not in my name.

I refuse to call them "Boots on the Ground" ... they are our human legacy. Beware Empire...they always fall.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. Right wingers are pissed because we pulled out in the middle of their surge....

Then we made them sleep in the wet spot.

[libdem4life]

25. Yes, now they are making fun of them for not "pushing back" hard enough. More blame the victim.

Seems to be a national obsession.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

26. What's funny is the reports of the Bush trained Iraqi army pulling the Holy Grail "Run away!" bit.

[libdem4life]

27. Truth is stranger than fiction...what a week in the RW Republican news stories.

[JonLP24]

29. Taliban -- IS

Same thing basically, they do the same thing over areas they have control over and I don't doubt same groups are in charge of both.

Pakistan was also one of only three countries, along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which recognised the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan from the mid-1990s until 2001.

It was also the last country to break diplomatic ties with the Taliban.

Although Pakistan has in recent years adopted a harder line against Taliban militants carrying out attacks on its soil, new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif - who was elected in May - has said talking to the militants is one of his priorities.

In recent months at least three key leaders of the Pakistani Taliban have been killed in US drone strikes. Mullah Nazir was killed in January and Waliur Rehman was killed in May.

In November 2013, the group's leader in Pakistan, Hakimullah Mehsud, was reported killed in a drone strike.

But despite these setbacks for the militants, there is evidence that their influence in Karachi has significantly increased.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-south-asia-11451718