Most of you have probably not seen this recent article, What Isis Really Wants, published by The Atlantic. Â Even though it is quite long, it is well worth reading. Â The author does an excellent job of parsing the theology and properly ridiculing the Obama administration’s takfirism, the very doctrine that permits so much Muslim on Muslim murder.
With so much ground to cover, the author does miss some important issues (like the role of the Muslim Brotherhood, etc.), but he was focused on the kinetic problem we face.
The author’s analysis of territory, and its central place in Islamic theology/law is right, and his tentative suggestions about what that might mean by way of military strategy is useful, although he recognizes that we’d likely botch that up by mixing too much PC with war — as we have since the Korean War and certainly the Vietnam War, and most recently the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
But, all in all, an informative read even for the well-informed.