A second American has died fighting for the terrorist organization ISIS, or Islamic State — a group that is so extreme and bloodthirsty that even Al Qaeda leaders have stood against it. The latest American to die is Abdiraaman Muhumed from Minneapolis, who notably left behind nine children to seek paradise in martyrdom as a terrorist.
Muhamed was a Somali-American who appeared to see nothing immoral in abandoning nine children to seek his own salvation by joining a Muslim army that has been beheading nonbelievers, kidnapping women, and engaging in the mass execution of unarmed men. He is believed to be one of as many as 15 Minnesota Somali-Americans who left their homes to join ISIS. They have been reportedly joined by as many as 300 other Americans and thousands of Westerners.
A week earlier, Douglas McAuthur McCain, 33, a U.S. citizen from California, died fighting for the Islamic militants and Muhamed may have died in the same battle. In addition, a U.S. citizen from Florida, Moner Mohammad Abusalha, reportedly killed himself in a suicide bombing against Syrian government troops earlier this year. Moner Mohammad Abusalha posed with a kitten before his death. I suppose to show his more gentle side when he was not blowing people up.
As a father, I was particularly struck by the willingness of Abdiraaman Muhumed to abandon his wife and children (to be supported by others or possibly the state). In addition to murdering people in the name of Islam, he also saw seeking paradise through martyrdom as perfectly moral while leaving his children to fend for themselves. It is part of the twisted morality of these Islamic extremists. By the way, the Islamic State just released another video that proudly showed it marching stripped captured Syrian soldiers into the desert and shooting them. While most of us are repulsed by images of ISIS members displaying severed heads and massacring people, some like Muhumed and Abusalha are drawn by those same images to the Islamic State.
happypappies,
Add Obama’s stance, or lack thereof, with the Green movement in Iran.
Deviating from Bush has been Obama’s fundamental error. Obama should have stayed course from Bush like Eisenhower stayed the course from Truman.
The thing I personally observed with Obama was no action in Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood takes over, Then you have him bombing Libya in March of 2011 which leads directly to Benghazi. Then you have the Syrian Debacle which truly drove me nuts personally because I think Kerry is a Moron and they were blaming Assad instead of the rebels for the Chemical weapons which was very much a slippery slope on Obama’s part. Obama has that liar CIA agent in chief Neocon Jon Brennan to contend with and it is also my opinion that until Obama cleans house of all of these Bush-Cheney Neocon’s that he will end up a worse president in his foreign policy than Bush-Cheney
So often this starts in the home.
Extremist mothers bring up extremist sons. I wonder, when they’re sitting there at a funeral, presiding over a match box coffin, if they ever feel any twinges of guilt as they proclaim how proud they are of their murdering dead sons. I have no idea how to break this cycle, if living in America, enjoying its freedoms, does not do it.
Some do come from moderate homes. I chalk them up to stupidity and being easily led.
What will the 9 children he abandoned grow up to become? The odds are stacked against them – being in a single parent household gives them higher risks for drugs, crime, dropping out of school, and ending up in jail. Throw in a fanatic, extremist father and they just got the worst hand in the gamble for what family they were born into.
Obama made some comment yesterday that some act in the Syria/Iraq region “was beyond The Pale”. Beyond the Paletinate. That was a phrase which meant that east of a certain boundary all things were pirate territory and beyond help, hope, change, alteration and that those of us from the west should stay the frig out.
Add: The cancer analogy stretches to ISIS in that cutting off a cancer treatment course prematurely, more so in conjunction with an unhealthy lifestyle, will just about guarantee re/occurrence of a worse cancer that may not be treatable the next time around, if there is a next time.
Our leaving Iraq prematurely in conjunction with the degeneration of the Arab Spring, particularly in Syria, related to Obama’s catastrophic failures and errors, brought on the current crisis.
Annie: “the unintended consequences of a foreign policy that meddles in other countries’ business in order to nation build.”
That’s just the problem. Obama intervened but declined to nation-build.
It’s the cancer treatment analogy. Excising malignant tumors (Nazis) is not enough. The cancer is still there and the body is weakened. The mid-term dedicated treatment of radiation and chemo (occupation, Marshall Plan), while the body is vulnerable to reoccurrence and other cancer/disease (Soviets), is critical. Long-term physical therapy, diet, exercise, check-ups, etc. (NATO) is important. With all that, cancer might still re/occur (Putin?).
Bush understood the importance of both winning the war short-term and securing and building the peace (aka nation-build) long-term, like we did following WW2. That’s not genius on Bush’s part. It’s simply America’s modern history as leader of the free world. Truman and Eisenhower aren’t that long ago and we’re still in Europe and Asia.
However, Obama opted for the converse and actively intervened against autocratic regimes but declined the mid-term dedicated treatment of peace operations.
Of autocrats (pre-Arab Spring status quo), terrorists, and moderates, the moderates need the most help from the West to take and hold power. Obama’s dumbfounding strategy of acting against autocrats but declining to boost the moderates could only work to empower – one guess – the terrorists.
It almost seems as though – as Dredd’s video implies – Obama directed the US to aid the terrorist ascension in the Arab Spring.
I don’t agree with Putin on much, but I agree with Putin that Obama’s approach to the Arab Spring was incredibly irresponsible. If Obama wasn’t committed to building the peace like Bush (and Truman and Ike), then Obama shouldn’t have intervened against the autocrats in a way that favored the terrorists.
Also, since ISIS employs upwards of 40-plus suicide bombers a month as part of their battle tactics, they need plenty of fresh, feverish jihadist fodder to play the part.
Folks,
This is what’s scaring me. Obama didn’t waste any time. Less than 24 hours from his national speech on TV yesterday, he started up with the fund raisers again.
@Ken
I wouldn’t put anything past ISIS. I can think of lots of ways they could disrupt the country for quite a while. Particularly if they don’t mind dying in the process. But I don’t want to write about it in case I have thought of ways they haven’t.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Squeeky,
You raised an interesting point. Could or would ISIS use a biological weapon….Weaponized Ebola virus would be a first.
Water supplies, restaurants, salad bars in supermarkets, etc.
Simply, some people just want to kill others. ISIS gives them that opportunity.
LOL Squeeky.
BTW, the tanks have built in donut dispensers.
Hmmm. I imagine ISIS would poison all the donuts, and the cops would croak before ever reaching them. I can even envisage little donut shaped IEDs and the cops, “Oh lookee! A donut!” then KABLOOEY! That is how I see it going down.
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
There is a new military NSA google for finding out anything that is known about you.
These Americans who are alleged to have gone to ISIS / ISIL would have a “file” if you know what I mean.
NSA documents of this manual have been leaked by whistleblowers:
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/25/icreach-nsa-cia-secret-google-crisscross-proton/
Ken
Dredd,
….
Get the cops boozed up too, and I’ll bet you who wins!
=======================
Game theory heaven (“who wins”) is no place for foreign policy.
Annie
So who this 1033 program benefitting? Give away military equipment to police departments, just so more can be manufactured when we engage in new wars, costing billions more money to taxpayers. Yet the poor get maligned for the pittance they get under our social safety net. Something stinks.
============================
Here is a link to an interactive map where you click on a county to see what they have been given by 1033 …
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/20/upshot/data-on-transfer-of-military-gear-to-police-departments.html?_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0
Dredd,
If the US cops with itchy trigger fingers were let lose on ISIS, it would be a no win situation (Not fair – dirty fight).
Don’t even need special operations military. Just crazy cops with itchy trigger fingers will scare the crap out of ISIS. Get the cops boozed up too, and I’ll bet you who wins!
So who this 1033 program benefitting? Give away military equipment to police departments, just so more can be manufactured when we engage in new wars, costing billions more money to taxpayers. Yet the poor get maligned for the pittance they get under our social safety net. Something stinks.