Here's why Paris ...

[ananda]

France has been the most active western country involved in airstrikes
directly on Isis installations and vociferously calling for Assad to step down. See:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/14/france-active-policy-syria-assad-isis-paris-attacks-air-strikes

[ananda]

3. I wonder if other countries will step up now.

Until recently, France has been pretty much alone in this.

[FLPanhandle]

2. Oh are we blaming France now for asshole terrorists?

Sometimes this place is a loony bin.

The terrorists are evil assholes driven by an extreme version of a out dated religion. Stop making excuses for them.

[ananda]

4. We are explaining why ISIS targeted Paris.

Some people on the board seemed to want to know.

[whathehell]

7. I don't know that anyone is blaming France..

but they shouldn't, if they are. I say 'Viva la France' in earnest.

[smirkymonkey]

16. Thank YOU!

Nothing we do or don't do is going to stop them. They despise Western society and all it represents. They want to wipe it out and install an Islamic Sharia government. People need to grow up and see them for what they are.

[Bucky]

24. Understanding why Paris was targeted is not the same thing as blaming the victims

The right blame isn't hard to pinpoint and target... and lot more literal targeting will probably go on because of this horrible attack. But it really is helpful to try to figure out the "why's" behind this. Replacing all analysis with simply blind anger is not helpful at all.

[CJCRANE]

5. They also supported Syrian rebels. Remember that we were for them before we were against them. nt

[ananda]

8. I know. The language is like surreal arglebargle.

At least Obama isn't using the word "crusade" or the "will to power"
like Bush did.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

6. Wait, what?

You think that calling for their mortal enemy president Assad to step down is part of what ISIS are angry about?

[ananda]

9. Sorry, I was just recapitulating the article a bit.

Obviously I'm an idiot.

[Depaysement]

11. There are other reasons too

Paris is the cradle of liberty and democracy, representative of republican values and skepticism of religion. There are many poor, disaffected people in the banlieues and elsewhere aroused by the ISIS pitch.

[ananda]

21. That is true. Also ...

... France has been particularly harsh in its moves to force
Muslim assimilation -- in dress, for instance.

[randome]

12. Bull. Shit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/world/europe/isis-claims-responsibility-for-paris-attacks-calling-them-miracles.html?vh=e8a05eb28a70ce27baed28f20353bda3ff14b8c4&ts=1447507574&_r=0

Paris was attacked because it is "a capital of prostitution and obscenity."

Not one of the attackers claimed retribution. For anything.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

[EL34x4]

13. You're not helping

We're looking for a reason that gives Islam a pass. It's got to be something else, right?

[randome]

14. As much as I despise religion, I don't want to label Islam as the cause.

Neither are our past transgressions in the Middle East. This comes from splinter groups looking to consolidate power and establish a new caliphate across Europe. And random attacks of innocent people have never helped any power-hungry group in the past and they never will.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

[Warren Stupidity]

17. Actions can have more than one cause.

It isn't a choice of Islam vs imperialism. That would be a false dichotomy. The global phenomena of radical religious fundamentalism is one facet of "the problem", as is the iron fisted imperialism of america's new world neocon order of the post 9-11 world. Add into that the increasing environmental instability of the anthropocene catastrophic climate change era and the dysfunction of an economic system based on perpetual growth that requires infinite resources and what we are seeing was entirely predictable and was in fact predicted by all sorts of people from The Club of Rome to a whole lot of science fiction writers, futurists, and ordinary citizens unblinkered by the incessant brain washing.

[2naSalit]

26. +1

[Warren Stupidity]

15. "This is for Syria Iraq"

As reported here http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027343768

source la times.

Of course there is a connection.

[randome]

18. And yet their 'official' statement is that Paris was attacked because...

...it is 'a capital of prostitution and obscenity'. And their stated goal is to establish a caliphate across Europe. And they regularly enslave and mutilate their own.

Despite this one occurrence of claiming payback, I don't think payback has anything to do with it.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

[Warren Stupidity]

19. So no connection between war there and war here.

Interesting.

[randome]

20. The connection is that we fucked up the region with Iraq. But that isn't why they attack now.

“A group of believers from the soldiers of the Caliphate set out targeting the capital of prostitution and vice, the lead carrier of the cross in Europe, Paris,” he said.

“They divorced worldly life and advanced towards their enemy hoping to killed for Allah’s sake…and his allies.

“Allah granted victory upon their hands and cast terror into the hearts of the crusaders in their very own homeland.”

Isis’ statement said eight “brothers” were armed with assault rifles and wearing explosives belts that they detonated when their ammunition ran out.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-attacks-this-is-just-the-beginning-isis-vows-after-killing-at-least-127-people-in-french-a6734546.html

"For Allah's sake". "the capital of prostitution and vice".

Only as an aside do we sometimes hear a statement blaming it all on Western meddling in the Middle East. Their primary motivation is to kill and enslave as many as possible.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

[ananda]

22. Radical religious language ..

Yes it can sound insane. We have it here too.

But I don't want to use it to excuse western
interference in the ME, either; or to let
terrorists off the hook.

Maybe there's some middle ground. I think
there is plenty to criticize on both sides. But
an act of terror against innocent civilians
should never be condoned no matter what
party, religious group, or country commits it.

That's what makes this kind of situation a right
mess.

[melman]

23. It's really quite amazing

They do these things and then they explicitly state why they are doing these things..


and people go "yeah, but why are they really doing it?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

27. At least in principle, that's a perfectly reasonable thing to do.

The reasons people do things often don't have much in common with the reason they say they do them, or even with the reason they think they do them.

The problem is not that people refuse to take ISIS at their word, it's that too many people are desperate to find a way to lay this at the door of America, rather than blaming ISIS for it. A specific problem, not a generic one.

[odd_duck]

25. Not to change the subject but.....

I took a baseball bat and smacked the hell out of a large hornets nest, and for the life of me, can't figure out why I'm getting stung........

[alarimer]

28. It is also the embodiment of Enlightenment values, something these ideologies despise.

We need to promote western liberal values even more, as a replacement for this backward, barbarian thinking.

The best way, though, is not bombing the shit out of places, which ultimately doesn't do much good because it's too unfocused and does too much collateral damage. Someone else mentioned an approach similar to how they got the Munich assassins. I agree with that and also with the need to cut off the money supply.