11-17-2015, 11:17 AM
(11-16-2015, 11:24 PM)Mohammed Wrote: What Daesh is trying to do is simply make the Western culture hate anything Muslim. Why? Because just like in Syria with Sunni and Shia, they can tell those Muslims then "See, come to us and you will be taken care of as those others just want to hurt you!"
I think you're right that Daesh benefits from anti-Muslim sentiment in the West. It helps bolster their rhetoric regarding the evil infidels, allows Daesh to attract Western recruits who are themselves disgruntled with Western society, and gets Daesh the media exposure they crave in order to grow their forces.
I don't know all the motives of Al Bagdadi and others at the very top of the Daesh chain, of course. But, in my opinion, terrorizing the West is one of the means to an end, not the end goal itself. I believe Daesh when they proclaim that the establishment of a caliphate in Syria, Iraq and the Levant is their ultimate goal. I believe they are sincerely committed to an Islamic State ruled by archaic laws and (unlike al-Qaeda) Daesh/ISIL needs the land specified in the Koran to accomplish their fundamentalist mission.
The Kurds have been kicking ass on the ground in Iraq and Syria, with the help of the U.S., France, and the coalition in the air and in advisory capacities. Key Daesh managers and propaganda figures have been assassinated. Key caliphate-marked land has been reclaimed from Daesh. I think Daesh feels they're entitled to that land and will keep fighting for it until all of their foot soldiers are dead and the new recruits dry up.
In the meantime, they'll keep terrorizing and retaliating against those who stand in their way - including Russia and the West - but by far the majority of their victims are reasonable Muslims who reject and refuse to legitimize them.