Some blow-back on the ISIS horror

Arab World Unites in Anger After Burning of Jordanian Pilot
"There was one feeling that many of the Middle East’s fractious clerics, competing ethnic groups and warring sects could agree on Wednesday: a shared sense of revulsion at the Islamic State’s latest excess, its video showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive inside a cage."
. . . Grand Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb (right), the head of Cairo’s thousand-year-old Al Azhar institute and a leading Sunni scholar, was so angered that he called for the Islamic State’s extremists to be “killed, or crucified, or their hands and legs cut off.” . . .

Obama: "Whatever ideology they are operating under is “bankrupt.”

"He didn’t want to talk about the pilot being set afire. He wanted to “talk about how to make people healthier and make their lives better.” 

In contrast to our president: Jordan Chooses Sides  . . . "From a political perspective, the executions were necessary. The video of the execution was as brutal as it was scarring. It has circulated widely in Arabic chat forums and elsewhere online. Jordanians, who are already critical of their king, want action. To do anything but execute Sajida would be to hand the Islamic State (ISIS) a victory by effectively cowing to their demands that Jordan stand down. Frankly, she should have died years ago in order to bring justice for the families of her victims. The king demurred, however, effectively commuting her sentence in order to appease her supporters and, alas, in Jordan there are many. Her execution, however, underscores that King Abdullah II has recognized that in the battle against Islamist extremism, Jordan can no longer be neutral." . . . Michael Rubin in Commentary Magazine

Islam and Appeasement  . . . "Premature absolution of Islam is now the knee jerk response to all atrocity. Never mind that most terror groups are Muslim and proudly array themselves with all the predictable kit: incantations, black surah flags, the Koran, the Hadith, beards, and burkas -- all in the name of Mohammed. Somehow we are supposed to believe that none of this has anything to do with true Islam." . . .

Does ISIS risk blowback, or is there a plan?  . . . "Another possibility is that ISIS wants to appear as the biggest, baddest strong horse, and thereby appeal to the widespread desire among Arabs, and Muslims more generally, for revenge."

To desecrate the victim while alive is part and parcel of Islam in hope that people would convert through sheer fear or to repulse the enemy.

Another ISIS Atrocity . . . "Be under no illusions: At the strategic level, our current efforts are failing. Moreover, the fanatics are advancing westward. Shrouded in self-assumed holiness, the Islamic State believes it will achieve global dominion."
"The path we must take is hard but clear. Paying heed to the good life of Moaz al-Kasasbeh, we must finish his fight and rid the world of those who murdered him."   

It will not be led by the feckless Obama. He will dither and appease for the next two years and when out of office he will demagogue Conservatives for any struggles in the war. And he will do this in his shirtsleeves before the usual smiling, adoring sycophants