There’s very little, if anything, you can do directly to defeat the terrorists. Hopefully, the shock and awe experienced in Paris last week has worn off by now, and we can comprehend exactly what we’re dealing with.
Having a rational discussion on this topic is frustrating enough, even if you do gain the satisfaction of proving a few points. We can stand with Paris, Beirut, Sinjar, and do whatever we can to raise awareness, but many observers can’t help but acknowledge the detachment between public sentiment and the situation on the ground.
Most calls for action have taken place in expressions of solidarity, like lighting candles and displaying patriotic colors. If trying the profile filter on your Facebook page really makes you feel better, then good. That’s what it’s there for. Everyone's free to employ whatever coping methods work for them. But everyone's also free to go further. You can write a check. Give some of your volunteer time to the survivors. Pray to a higher power, if that's what you're into.
Or here’s a tempting offer: join the fight. Regular U.S. forces are holding back from a full-scale ground assault on IS territory, instead choosing to court proxy armies such as the Kurdish Militias (who got bombed by Turkey, a NATO ally bordering IS territory) and CIA trained FSA operatives (with embarrassing results). At the same time, there’s nothing stopping you from picking up a Kalashnikov and marching to the front lines like this guy.
While you consider these options, efforts to contain the growing terrorist threat continue through intelligence-gathering operations and allied airstrikes mostly in Iraq and Syria. Currently, other combat options are restricting.
The armies of the civilized world continue to fight the Global War on Terror (GWOT), a series of interconnected conflicts under the wide banner of jihad. To ask for peace at this point is a tall order. This war has always been one without borders, employing drones and special ops in completely deniable and unaccountable missions that protect us by not officially existing. They were being fought before the attack on Paris, they are still being fought now, and after occupying the region perceived as the terrorist HQ for over a decade, there is still no “end” in sight. Conflict between secular Western governments and twisted fundamental Sharia Law will not ever peacefully coexist, and neither side will be able to fully snuff out the other.
We call them terrorists, they call us Crusaders (before you click on that, be aware that it's a link to the latest issue of "Dabiq," ISIS's propaganda magazine). It's as if they're under the impression that the Crusades of medieval times never truly ended. But it's worth noting that in terms of body count, this is what winning looks like. The war has killed a lot of enemy combatants, and continuing the campaign will rack those numbers up even higher. But is killing the enemy enough? Will these “Crusades” end within our lifetime? It’s hard to tell since many generations have been brought up accepting this cycle of violence as the norm. What we can do, however, is stand united to make sure humanity survives the chaos of war and suppress the ideology that promotes it.
