Previously known as The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] then The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria [ISIS], is an organization that was once an ally of Al Qaeda in Syria now considered too extreme by Al Qaeda.
The other day I compared them [in brutality and fundamentalism] to the Khmer Rouge, I stand behind this comparison as this has nothing to do with religion but absolute control. Like the Khmer Rouge they have arisen out of chaos and a power vacuum left by war in an area once controlled by imperialistic powers through their puppets.
They did not suddenly spring out of the ground neither did Hitler, Stalin, the Iranian Revolutionaries, the Taliban, Al Qaeda or the Khmer Rouge. Like those before them they have fed upon sectarianism and ideology in an ever tightening circle of violence, eventually the most vicious win a temporary victory. Previously the region appeared to be stable but that stability was superficial backed by Imperial powers [whether communist or capitalist] in their global geopolitical shenanigans.
For funding of these groups we just need to look at those that funded Al Qaeda and those that funded the revolutionaries in Syria. For the underlying reasons you have to look who funded the dictators previously controlling the region and who then occasionally toppled them when they didn't conform.
The Islamic State in this case is the logical result of decades of political games and those political games were played for profit and power. We then seem to throw up our hands in horror and surprise at the end result, although history can give you hundreds of examples of the same damn thing. Violence begets violence, oppression begets oppression, when you leave a power vacuum it gets filled.
Even the history of the formation of the United States of America left millions dead, displaced and oppressed until it finally found some form of unity. The formation of Europe left hundreds of millions dead, displaced and oppressed until it got too shocked, old and tired to continue. Unfortunately we exported our rivalries around the world through various empires and ideology.
Until the powerful change the way they play with the world than this cycle is doomed to continue. Bombing and killing for peace does not seem to be a logical way out of these situations, it needs something far more fundamental than that and I am not sure as a species we are actually capable of so doing.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Matthew 5.5
We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.
Buddha
When?