February 12, 2015 05:34 AM UTC

War with ISIL: Discuss

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• by: kwtree

You've seen or read about their snuff videos of captured journalists and humanitarians. I could have filled this post with horrifying images – but if you have right wing friends or acquaintances, your spam box is already filled with those posts, along with inflammatory rhetoric claiming that all Muslims in America secretly want to do the same things.  Muslims are being killed in America as crazed, deluded, armed "patriots" try to "defend America", terrifying peaceful refugees and innocent Muslim citizens.

You want ISIL stopped, degraded, destroyed, marginalized. Yet our own foreign policies, and those of our closest allies in the region, have allowed them to grow and thrive.  According to the latest report from BBC news, drone strikes and Kurdish resistance are barely containing ISIS/ISIL's advances.  This map shows the current state of IS – controlled territories and resources in the region.

ISIL has a budget of two billion and releases annual reports.

"It's the worst of all worlds: external funding from wealthy outside donors, state sponsorship from across the Persian Gulf, and the ability to raise large amounts of money locally," Zarate said.

Anonymous has successfully targeted the group's recruitment efforts. 

Thousands have been killed in our drone strikes which cost civilian lives and further polarize and radicalize neutral people.

Our "allies", i.e. the Saudi and other regimes, are not fighting against ISIS and ISIL, except with propaganda ( Al-Arabiya, owned by Murdoch chum Prince Al Waleed. The network was shut down after only one day on the air, following pressure from the royal family. So much for freedom of the press in Saudi Arabia.)

We all remember how  George W Bush lied us into a decade of fruitless war in Afghanistan and Iraq. ISIL recruitment grew as a result of Amerian and allied torture, deaths of half a million civilians, and now Al-Qaeda branches are firmly established in many countries, including lawless Somalia.

We don't want to get lied to again about nonexistent WMDs or hypothetical mushroom clouds. ISIS has no nuclear weapons – yet.. We don't want to be stupid sheep again. We don't want to "break" the region further. Yet something must be done about ISIL.

President Obama has asked Congress to authorize military force, after using military force for the last five years in drone strikes. "Boots on the ground" and special attack forces such as SEAL teams are specifically not ruled out in the proposed resolution.

Will political posturing be the extent of the actions of Congress? Are the possible impacts on the 2016 elections the primary concern of politicians?

What will your newly elected Senators and Representatives do?

What do you want them to do?

Discuss.