The only reason ISIS is a problem is that it isn’t open to US interests in the region. Basta! 

In the rigmarole of the upcoming US presidential elections, the issue of national security and ISIS comes up in the debates regularly. When candidates are asked about “threats to US security,” it’s a question that assumes certain givens; namely, that there are real, genuine threats currently to US national security. Yet the word “threat” in this instance is just a coded term which really means “threats to US-dominated business as usual” or “challenges to US economic supremacy,” etc. ISIS poses no threat to the US’s sovereignty, nationhood, or economy. Its sole problem is its lack of willingness to play the game and be a sanctioned outpost of the US Empire. The axis of evil that George Bush coined (being North Korea, Iran, and Iraq) are just nation states that are, or were, uncooperative or unaligned with US economic interests.

The US has no problem with medieval and barbaric Islamic nation states ruled by crazy royal tyrants. Actually, it’s their preferred type of political structure to deal with (no tedious and democratic facades). You can behead whomever you want, cut off hands, supress any and all democratic  processes, pour millions into fundamental Islam, and bankroll terrorists, and all this gets the US’s green light if you are aligned with US business interests in the region. The most obvious case in point is Saudi Arabia. This tyrannical monarchy is built and founded on extreme Islam, but its shocking human rights record is a non-issue, as it’s considered an “ally” in the region. If for whatever reason ISIS became chummy with the US and Europe, all talk of the evil of ISIS would cease.

The Saudi government has beheaded five foreigners convicted of murder and robbery, and then strung their bodies from a helicopter to deter would-be criminals

They would be rebranded, told to tone down some of the barbarity, and a new dawn of cooperation and partnership would ensue. The US would most likely sic their newly domesticated dog in the region onto Iran. Same goes with North Korea, as they launch unapproved nuclear missile tests, yet Israel doesn’t acknowledge they have these missiles, when everyone knows they do, and the world just looks away like it’s no big deal.

Geo-politics is amoral, period. It is a global mafia of corporate dons, political capos, and territory sliced and diced. Everything is permissible as long the big boss gets his cut and the little fish stay in line. We live in Orwellian times, when Western governments’ actions throughout the world bring war, poverty, and destruction, yet are called efforts to bring democracy or economic development.  Truth has become lies and lies truth. We are driving our planet into the abyss of inhabitability while we obliviously watch Real Housewives and eat Whoppers. If it wasn’t so tragic and the cause of so much suffering, it would be a surreal comedy.

I think our only hope is for each of us to personally wake up and cease our sleepwalking lives of unquestioned consumption, habit, and wilful blindness: to start taking some responsibility for what happens, what matters, and what is really going on. After that, I really think we need some kind of miracle, something to break this spell we seem enchanted and blinded by. I guess we have to start with our personal illusions and blindness, and work our way out from there. I think there is hope, but it won’t come from the systems and structure that surround us. The master’s tools will not dismantle the master’s house. We need something new, something plucked from an unseen space, something from the unknown. When and how, I don’t know, but I wish it, so I pray for it and stay hopeful every day.