Let's not help ISIS create chaos

As Rusty Foster would say, the takes are in. Everyone’s got something to say about global terrorism, ISIS, and refugees, and some of it is even worth reading.

If you’re only going to read one longer piece, I recommend this one by Scott Atran and Nafees Hamid. Among other things they quote from The Management of Savagery, a 2004 manifesto by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, which later became ISIS. That document’s points include:

• Attacks should focus on tourist centers—which will respond by increasing security, at great expense.
• Attacks should aim to draw the U.S.—and by extension, its European allies—into deeper, more direct military conflict.

According to Atran and Hamid, the major goal for ISIS here is to create and manage chaos. “The greater the hostility toward Muslims in Europe and the deeper the West becomes involve in military action in the Middle East,” they write, “the closer ISIS comes to its goal.”