That part struck me, too. It's a narcissistic way of seeing things, where everything comes back to being about us (the West). ISIS's motives were pretty plain

That part struck me, too. It's a narcissistic way of seeing things, where everything comes back to being about us (the West). ISIS's motives were pretty plainly spoken from what I understood at the time. It was a grand nihilistic reset they had in mind, where everything from before was to be erased, and a new, pure beginning was to happen.