Reuters
To Kill The ISIS Monster You Gotta Do More Than Cut Off Its Money -- Charlie Winter, Daily Beast
When you take away the gas smuggling revenues from the so-called Islamic State, it’s likely to get more donations—and take more hostages.
LONDON — It’s now widely recognized that the so-called Islamic State is not only very brutal, it is very rich, with a larger and more sophisticated financial infrastructure than any terrorist organization before it. The self-proclaimed “caliphate” rakes in millions of dollars a month from a range of income streams, including money from donors, money from extortion and kidnapping, and, most importantly, the smuggling of cut-price oil and gas. The daily revenues are estimated at more than $3 million, which makes it easy to buy a certain level of control in the territories where the group, widely known by the English acronym ISIS, holds sway.
As Quilliam’s recent report on “Islamic State: The Changing Face of Modern Jihadism” argues, because of its financial independence ISIS is able to function (almost) like a state—a totalitarian one— coercing political loyalty with the most basic of carrot-and-stick models. Its ability to provide services and subsidize everyday goods gives it a political foundation that many of its subjects see as preferable to the governments of Damascus or Baghdad. Without that financial clout, the ties ISIS has with the population it rules would be sorely tested and its authority could become more precarious.
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My Comment: Money pays the bills, but it is true that the fighters for the Islamic State are primarily motivated by ideological/religious/sectarian reasons rather than getting a paycheck.
5 comments:
Yes, but there was quite a bit of propaganda of jihadis showing off their homes and the fact they had wives.
Now if there is no heat or no air conditioning or the wife dies in child birth, the kids die young due to the lack of clean water,antibiotics or something, where is that going to leave the believers?
Women and children do not grow on trees. Emphasizing quantity over quality in a crowded world is not going to work very well with all the microphages going around.
"Now if there is no heat or no air conditioning or the wife dies in child birth, the kids die young due to the lack of clean water,antibiotics or something, where is that going to leave the believers?"
As young as they are, they are probably still in the "don't care, just get another one" stage.
"As young as they are, they are probably still in the "don't care, just get another one" stage.'
Very true.
But their neighbors will fight increasingly hard as time goes on.
It will be more difficult to get another one.
the Yazidis were easy. they rest of the Kurds not so much.
They might figure this out. Most will not. but there is a price for ignorance.
Everything goes to crap. 2nd law of thermodynamics. It is harder to build than to destroy. They should be more worried about building and maintaining than destroying.
Slaves make poor maintainer of things. Even if you maintain things at the current tech, you never know how far you would have gotten if everyone was earnestly working/pulling. You never know how much tech you need for the next threat the universe will throw at you. And it will throw something. Earth is an aberration.
Oh I agree with everything you say Aizino. Another way of putting it is, when the romance of the situation wears off, these guys are going to have a rude awakening. Some of them might also realize that their mentors have used them like red headed step kids and there is no going back for the things they so happily got their hands bloody in. They (and I'm speaking of the foreign jihadi guys here) will finally realize that they will never be allowed into positions of power, that in essence they were, are, and always will be expendable. Somewhere along the way if the real powers that be in ISIS can't get them to leave, either to go home or attack another country, they will destroy them. History has shown to happen every single time.
Money is a factor for some recruits, especially young men from Iraq and Syria with few job prospects (according to interviews). Most recruits from Europe appear to be attracted by the desire to be part of something larger than themselves (i.e., "psychological reasons). However, several interviews have revealed that a substantial portion of those attracted to Daesh are sexually frustrated and interested in access to captured women. It also is obvious that some of the recruits are attracted by the opportunity to express their psychopathology in an environment that rewards brutal behavior. Ideology might be reported as the primary motivator, but other, more personal factors are usually involved.
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