Though the Islamic State (IS) has taken nearly half of Iraq in a surprise blitzkrieg, murdered thousands, expelled Christians–who had occupied Iraq and Syria for 2,000 years–and gathered supporters and recruits from all over the world, an editor at Politico mocked those who are worried about the terror group.
Blake Hounshell, Politico’s deputy editor, took to Twitter on Monday evening to make light of an ABC report asserting that U.S. Special Ops sources have called IS an “incredible fighting force.”
Can we stop drooling about ISIS please? They ain’t 10 feet tall. http://t.co/x0lYIwJ5Rt
— Blake Hounshell (@blakehounshell) August 26, 2014
The force that Hounshell seems to dismiss murdered 1,500 POWs “in a brutal display of violence” last month. Stories and photographs of the group’s barbarism have been streaming out of Iraq and Syria for months.
The beheading of American journalist James Foley was a direct shot at the United States and will become a symbol of American impotence if President Obama allows the murder to go unanswered.
Yet with all this, Blake Hounshell strangely seems to think that IS is something to which we should pay no mind.
To discount this Islamist terror army, a group that has killed thousands and threatens even our homeland, seems shortsighted, especially for Hounshell, a man who used to be the managing editor of Foreign Policy magazine.
In fact, IS seems to have become even more successful and dangerous in its efforts than al-Qaeda. As Breitbart New’s Dr. Sebastian Gorka recently noted, IS has been able to bring in outside recruits in larger numbers, controls more territory, and has launched a more sophisticated propaganda campaign than has al-Qaeda.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.
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