Calm.

Editor,

Calls to "degrade" and "destroy" ISIS because things it does are terrible amp up support for military action where a military solution does not exist.

Focusing on heinous acts diverts attention from the real problem that gives rise to ISIS and other violent extremist groups, and this problem is political.

There is a power struggle going on in the Middle East of which ISIS is a consequence and in which ISIS is a pawn, not a primary actor. Instability is fostered and exploited in the region by states vying for regional dominance.

The sort of individuals who are attracted to the theater in which this struggle is taking place are alienated, angry, violent, and ideologically twisted young men. The political circumstances in which groups like ISIS are operating are saturated with weapons, violent, and lawless.

As long as ISIS or some other violent group is the focus and stamping it out militarily is the goal, nothing will change. Another will take its place.

Only political reconciliation of the competing interests of states in the region can calm the turmoil there, and no one in the corporate mainstream is at all interested in it.

Re: "The Fundamental Horror of ISIS" (10/3/2014)