Warren: Destroying ISIS should be 'No. 1 priority'

[loyalsister]

59. Not just a power vacuum

A generation of ready recruits.

The young people in Iraq and other countries have heard the the story an Iraqi man who I met here told me. "Sadam was a tyrant, but we had a place to work and your siblings had a school, libraries, and lived a not quite comfortable, but at least we had a relatively safe home...... then came the Americans." Then came ISIS. They had the perfect situation to grow their ranks. They could do some damage. We tell the story of why they are there and how we want to help. ISIS turns their vengeance on us, and they see that they can do damage to the original actors.

It's difficult to imagine what it feels like to know what we took from them, opportunities, the lives and happiness of their families, actual people..... From that perspective, how does it feel to know this also happened to every single one of their friends and neighbors over 3000 people who nobody from their country killed? Not minimizing the trauma or losses here, just trying to look at the context that forms the world view of people who are vulnerable to the leaders of these terrorists. Can we really with a straight face now ask, "why do they hate us?"

Nothing justifies the terror ISIS is inflicting. But, I think it's reasonable to step back and ask if we did anything that would give them convincing talking points when they are looking for people to do their bidding. I think that there is some merit to the argument that ISIS is as dangerous as Warren claims. So many of them have known nothing but war and they see us living quite comfortably. There are people who were born into war with no choice but to live in fear, while we basically have an option to not have our lives at risk. If this is the only story they hear about us for years to come, it will only grow more powerful and resolved. We won't be able to do anything right in that region for a very long time. Anything we did or didn't do in Syria would have stoked those fires. If those talking points can be used to get people here cheering for war despite the losses we have felt, imagine how easy it is to manipulate people have been living at risk and in misery.