3 ms·

Islamic State needs oil money to sustain its military, not the terrorists that it sends into Europe. The most expensive cost there is airfare and weapons/muniti

Islamic State needs oil money to sustain its military, not the terrorists that it sends into Europe. The most expensive cost there is airfare and weapons/munitions. Additionally, cutting off funding doesn't solve the issue of homegrown terrorism, a la Sayed Farook who is a salaried employee and set up an IED factory in his home. He probably paid for that himself.

npunt 11y ago
First, I'd bet that ISIS money is spent on a lot more than military - what about providing a cushy experience for previously recruited western radicals, so that they tell others back home how great it is? Can't find the link, but varieties in accommodations for recently recruited western radicals vs others is causing some internal strife. If you came over to ISIS from some nice first world place like London, only to find yourself in a very uncomfortable, foreign desert environment eating crap food, you probably wouldn't send message back that everything's great. That costs money. Second, you assume the cost of propaganda is 0, which it is not. ISIS has gone so far as to publish a very high production value magazine [0] and high quality recruitment videos. You can bet that there are tons of people on message boards and other corners of the net that are on ISIS payroll out there trying to radicalize as many people as possible, offering a (twisted) sense of purpose and meaning in their lives. And people collecting and disseminating content on how best to make IEDs, kill people, etc. They undoubtedly have many social media managers. In my first comment I was going to add another point which was that if we were able to completely wipe out ISIS that will not all of a sudden stop people from being radicalized, it will only stop those being radicalized by ISIS. ISIS happens to recruit better than most (due to their money), but there will always be people, often marginalized, who will fall prey to radicalization - and some who seek it out. Sayed seems like he was that kind of guy, ISIS or no. Everyone's all up in arms about ISIS because we're being blanketed by news about them, which is not proportional to the threat they actually pose to us. Paris was a manifestation of longstanding troubles with european countries integrating muslim immigrants which likely created necessary conditions for radicalization by [insert crazy people]; San Bernardino was very likely a manifestation of mental health issues and cultural marginalization/domestic political climate. These issues are unlikely to go away when ISIS does - the latter we have an example of from just the week prior with the Planned Parenthood shooter. [0] http://www.clarionproject.org/news/islamic-state-isis-isil-propaganda-magazine-dabiq http://www.clarionproject.org/news/islamic-state-isis-isil-p...

npunt 11y ago

First, I'd bet that ISIS money is spent on a lot more than military - what about providing a cushy experience for previously recruited western radicals, so that they tell others back home how great it is? Can't find the link, but varieties in accommodations for recently recruited western radicals vs others is causing some internal strife. If you came over to ISIS from some nice first world place like London, only to find yourself in a very uncomfortable, foreign desert environment eating crap food, you probably wouldn't send message back that everything's great. That costs money. Second, you assume the cost of propaganda is 0, which it is not. ISIS has gone so far as to publish a very high production value magazine [0] and high quality recruitment videos. You can bet that there are tons of people on message boards and other corners of the net that are on ISIS payroll out there trying to radicalize as many people as possible, offering a (twisted) sense of purpose and meaning in their lives. And people collecting and disseminating content on how best to make IEDs, kill people, etc. They undoubtedly have many social media managers. In my first comment I was going to add another point which was that if we were able to completely wipe out ISIS that will not all of a sudden stop people from being radicalized, it will only stop those being radicalized by ISIS. ISIS happens to recruit better than most (due to their money), but there will always be people, often marginalized, who will fall prey to radicalization - and some who seek it out. Sayed seems like he was that kind of guy, ISIS or no. Everyone's all up in arms about ISIS because we're being blanketed by news about them, which is not proportional to the threat they actually pose to us. Paris was a manifestation of longstanding troubles with european countries integrating muslim immigrants which likely created necessary conditions for radicalization by [insert crazy people]; San Bernardino was very likely a manifestation of mental health issues and cultural marginalization/domestic political climate. These issues are unlikely to go away when ISIS does - the latter we have an example of from just the week prior with the Planned Parenthood shooter. [0] http://www.clarionproject.org/news/islamic-state-isis-isil-propaganda-magazine-dabiq http://www.clarionproject.org/news/islamic-state-isis-isil-p...