ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. ISIS is a Middle East religious group of distinctive Islam that has beliefs about the path of Judgment Day (Wood, 2015). It is a collection of psychopaths believing that for the judgement day apocalypse to reach, clear strategies have to be laid. The group believes that all human beings, more so, the non-Muslims are sinners. Also, the pathology paradigm denotes to the medical model. Pathology paradigm refers to the medicalized autism framing and other constellations of neurological, behavioral, and cognitive characteristics as ‘conditions’ or ‘disorders.’ Medical model can only be seen as a social construction that is deeply rooted in social power inequalities and cultural norms, as opposed to a ‘scientifically objective’ reality description. Therefore, this paper intends to bring forth the intractable conflict of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) using the pathology paradigm.
Notably, according to Mark Berkson (2017), it is difficult to curb ISIS, courtesy of their level of wealth. ISIS controls oil fields, power plants, and equally factories. Statistically, it is an estimation that ISIS makes over two billion US dollars from the sale of oil daily. Much of the oil that ISIS sales are smuggled. ISIS hijacks oil ships in the seas and cheaply sells the oil to ready clients at a ridiculous price. At this point, the extent to which the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria is wealthy causes an enormous challenge for countries like the United States that are authentically trying to curb the group since their finances are as a result of local sales. In this case, the US and other countries find it challenging to put economic sanctions and banking interventions because the ISIS group is not funded directly by worldwide supporters.
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Also, the wealthiness of ISIS helps the group to conduct its operations effectively, just like any other national military. The ISIS terrorists are paid heavily when comparing them to the military soldiers.
Additionally, Berkson (2017), opines that ISIS seizes weapons from Syrian and Iraqi forces. By seizing weapons from militants, it means that ISIS is making the various countries’ military weaker since they do not have adequate weapons. On the other hand, ISIS is making itself stronger in terms of readiness to fighting, considering the readily available guns. After seizing, the respective governments take a while to buy new weapons, which gives ISIS space and ample time to make adequate terrorism plans. Thus, defeating ISIS is intractable.
Besides, ISIS uses the word Caliphate meaningfully in order to attract more terrorists (Berkson, 2017). ISIS believes that if they use and establish themselves under the term caliphate, they can eventually attract Muslim foreign fighters, an objective that they have immensely achieved. According to the Quran, after the death of Mohammed the prophet, there was a need to get another leader to replace him. In Islam, Calipha means ‘successor’. Thus, when ISIS calls themselves the caliphates, they intend to confuse the Muslim believers that they are the actual successors of Mohammed. Therefore, all Muslims should listen to their message, follow their teachings, and subsequently join them in the ‘holy’ war against sinners. ISIS has been able to convince Muslims across the world, hence recruiting new members each day. The many foreign fighters that ISIS is recruiting is making the group grow globally because, after the training, most of the individuals are sent to their respective countries on missions to kill innocent souls. In this scenario, it is quite tricky for the ISIS group to be defeated by the militants of different countries because of the high frequency of new members joining the terrorist group.
Moreover, Jim Tankersley (2015), mentions that social inequality is the primary driver of Middle Eastern terrorism. Tankersley anchors his assumption to the early November 2015 ISIS attack in Paris, whereby he depicts that Western countries should take the blame for the inequality. The Middles East’s social and political system is fragile because of the high oil wealth concentration into a few states that have a small population. The frequency of wealth in countries with less population make the region the most unequal on earth (Tankersley, 2015). Small groups of people control most of the Middle East Wealth, while the majority are in a semi-slavery state. Therefore, Jim sums up that the demographic boundaries have led to socio-economic inequalities leading to the formation of ISIS jihadists who are fighting for ‘equality in society’, thence making it intractable to end the ISIS terrorist group.
In conclusion, it is paramount to state that in order to end ISIS in Syria and Iraq, a significant number of American troops should be put on the ground. Equally, air strikes should continue being used in areas that the ground militants cannot reach. In addition, another effective way of defeating ISIS is by using the Islamist community. There should be careful coordination between the Islamists groups and ground militants. Islamists should help the militants to know the exact inhabitants of the ISIS militia which will help to ambush them. The fact is that most Muslims are against the ISIS group; hence, governments have to stop relating all Muslims to ISIS. Above all, there is a need for the vetted ISIS opposition groups such as the ‘Free Syrian Army’ to be financed to facilitate their endeavors of countering ISIS.
References
Berkson, M. (2017). Who is ISIS? A Cultural and Historical Perspective. Retrieved 27 November 2019, from https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/who-is-isis/
Tankersley, J. (2015). This might be the most controversial theory for what’s behind the rise of ISIS. Retrieved 27 November 2019, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/11/30/why-inequality-is-to-blame-for-the-rise-of-the-islamic-state/
Wood, G. (2015). What ISIS Wants. Retrieved 27 November 2019, from https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/03/what-isis-really-wants/384980/
