The Recapture of Ramadi from ISIS is a Very Big Deal

[Nevernose]

31. I'm sincerely not convinced that Islamic extremism was their primary motive

The guy got into an argument at a work party, felt insulted, went home, got his gun, and killed ONLY his coworkers at the party. No use of the pipe bombs in the apartment, no murdering any one of the HUNDREDS of other unarmed people there, including people that they walked past. Islamic terrorism might, indeed, have been on the agenda, but it looks like it was hardly item number one.

More related to your post: if the FBI is correct and they "were radicalized" in 2012 or before, then ISIS clearly had nothing to do with it, since they were neither an international organization nor known outside Northern Iraq until early 2014/late 2013. The guy was born and raised in Illinois and was about as American as you can get, just like the Colorado Springs religious terrorist from the same week; we should hardly be worried about some revolution in Iraq.

I'm sorry if you feel insulted by pointing out the obvious: terrorists' sole aim is to cause terror. If, then you feel terror, then the terrorists have achieved their aim. Lots of modern countries have endured far longer, more intense periods of terrorism, yet the populace wasn't arming themselves in fear and obsessing on cable news.