A poll about our newest war for our dear DUers

[JDPriestly]

70. I voted yes -- reluctantly, but yes.

Isis is a very dangerous movement that believes that killing those who disagree with its religious beliefs is justified. We have seen this kind of movement before. It is extremely dangerous. We should not accept the vicious intolerance of this group toward those who hold beliefs other than their own.

ISIS is essentially an extreme right-wing group that wants to make everyone conform to their narrow set of beliefs. That is precisely the kind of movement that has to be fought against by countries like ours that are, believe it or not, far more liberal than many. The extremism of ISIS will destroy the intellectual, moral and social fabric of the society opportunities in the societies that they invade. They will take the Middle East that is just now starting to emerge from a dark period backward. They will destroy the questioning that began with the Arab Spring. They will destroy education for women. They will leave a wasteland.

I generally oppose war, but ISIS is a really dangerous movement.

The American Civil War was important. It was a war against an ignorant, unjust institution: slavery. ISIS wishes to impose an ignorant, unjust form of the Islam on the people it manages to dominate. The fight against ISIS is to some extent perhaps about oil, but more importantly, it is about the freedom of the people in the Middle East to have a culture that is not dominated by an extreme form of religion.

This sounds trite and is likely to be misunderstood, but living in Los Angeles, living in a city that includes many cultures and religions (a Buddhist temple literally a short walk from my house), I have Muslim friends. They are not at all like the followers of ISIS. They are peaceful, normal people. I firmly believe in and practice tolerance, but not of criminal behavior. ISIS is a criminal organization. I do agree that the people most affected by ISIS, those in the Middle East should take the lead in fighting its aggression against their communities. But I also know that the US stirred the pot in the Middle East and is partly responsible for having created the problems that have given rise to ISIS. A peaceful resolution of the situation is needed, but I don't think that ISIS is ready for that yet. So war it will be. But if we deal with the situation firmly now, the war will not last that long. If we wait, ISIS will gain strength and the fight will be much worse than it would be if we resist the tendency to give in to extremism at this point. ISIS is extremist.