ISIS Legitimacy Analysis

For far too long now, North America has been at war with terrorist groups in the middle east. In 2001, the Twin Towers were struck by an aircraft commandeered by members of al-Qaeda killing approximately 3000 people. Since then, both Canada and America have been on high alert and very aggressive against these terrorist organizations. In response to the attacks in 2001, war was waged and ground troops were sent into Iraq to combat this foreign threat. Fourteen years have now passed but what, if anything, has been accomplished? Many still live in fear of these groups and in 2015 over one hundred people have been killed across Europe and America by ISIS alone. Uri Dromi, retired colonel in the IAF (Israeli Air Force), has argued in a recent article …show more content…
While I agree strongly with Dromi that we need to try a different strategy to combat ISIS effectively, I disagree with most of what he believes must be done. It is my position that ISIS can only be stopped by defeating their desire to fight because killing individual officers or destroying headquarters will only serve to validate their ideology of oppression and revenge. In this essay I will explain the factors that have given ISIS legitimacy amongst its followers so that we can understand the nature of our enemy. I will then argue that the Irish Republican Army is an excellent group to compare ISIS to as they shared critical ideological beliefs and have made peace with their enemies. To conclude my argument, I will detail how what we have learned from the IRA can be translated to fit an enemy that is culturally and geographically different. I do not believe that my interpretation of the issue will lead to rapid success and it may even be economically prohibitive, but it is the only option in my view, that has a truly possible chance of