Monday, October 6, 2014

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 6, 2014

Still image from an ISIS YouTube video

The Real Ideology Driving ISIS Isn't Islam Or Caliphate Revivalism: It's Ultraviolence -- Max Fisher, VOX

So much has been written about ISIS, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Where it comes from, what it wants, what drives its extremist ideology, why it has overtaken so much of the Middle East, what the world and the United States can and cannot do stop it. These are all complex and important topics worthy of intensive examination.

But when ISIS released its third beheading video on Friday, of the British aid worker Alan Henning, and threatening the same for American aid worker Peter Kassig, it was a reminder of what may be the most important, most core truth of ISIS. While ISIS as an organization behaves strategically and rationally, it is ultimately just the collection of its thousands of members, and those individual members have shown again and again to be motivated not by strategic calculus or religious devotion or historical nostalgia for an imagined Caliphate of old but by a simple, sadistic desire to commit murder and to do it gruesomely.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 6, 2014

Whatever help the West offers to fight Islamic State, it should have conditions -- Hugo Dixon, Reuters

Why doesn’t Russia join the anti-ISIS coalition? -- Maria Dubovikova, Al Arabiya

The legal basis for the war against Isis remains contentious -- Louise Arimatsu and Michael Schmitt, The Guardian

What comes after ISIS’ defeat? -- Raed Omari, Al Arabiya

America's War On ISIS Probably Won't Lead To A Nuke Deal With Iran -- The Economist

From Tibet to Taiwan, China’s Outer Regions Watch Hong Kong Protests Intently -- Andrew Jacobs, NYT

India, Pakistan trade gunfire in Kashmir. What happened to the relationship reset? -- Michael Holtz, CSM

What Russia is learning from Frank Sinatra -- Steve Rosenberg, BBC

Brazil’s Highs and Lows -- David Bille, Bloomberg

Venezuela’s perilous closeup -- Diego Arria, New York Daily News

Brazil's presidential race heads to a tight runoff – leaving Silva behind -- Miriam Wells, CSM

Ebola and the New Isolationism -- David Quammen, Time

Why the spooks keep getting it wrong -- Alexander Nekrassov, Al Jazeera

Who’s to Blame for a World in Flames? -- Walter Russel Mead, American Interest

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