You cannot stop all terrorism any more than you can stop any other criminal enterprise.
But it's clear that ISIS is GONE, there is no Islamic State whatsoever, and never will be.
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Excellent journalism delivered with humanity and empathy. This is why a read your paper.
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The children. What happens to the children. Please do follow up reporting. The photos with the children are devastating.
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Instead of concentrating 100% on “Islamic” Extremism, were Ms Rukmini Callimachi to devote 10% attention to American extremism she might discover more destroyed buildings, dead civilians (including starved ones), innocent people still in Gitmo (12 years later ?) …. The list is long, but I’ll stop here.
Btw, there is no proof that the destruction manifested in the photos was caused by the so called Islamic State functionaries. More likely the destruction has been caused by America supplied ammunition to predatory humanoids I see swaggering around in these photos?
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Reading about America recruited mercenaries to fight the Islamic State, I always imagined them to be desperadoes I saw in American movies of 30-50 years ago. The photo titled “American-backed Syrian Democratic Forces ...” accompanying this article, indeed shows BAD HOMBRES. There is an old adage, “a man is known by the company he keeps”. This is what America is reduced to now: BAD HOMBRES.
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Are these the “dead-enders” that Rumsfeld and Cheney promised us were all but finished?
“The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency”.
Vice -president Dick Cheney, May 2005
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So sad. Ill Pray for each of them, for us too. So sorry we can do anything more for them. For us.
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Negotiating with a group like ISIL legitimizes their fairy tale quest for an Islamic caliphate. It puts their cause on equal footing with other causes worth fighting for. It is short sighted to negotiate with them or give their fighters save passage. It is difficult to say this because it's never easy using a broad brush for such a difficult problem but the civilians caught in ISIL territory are mostly likely tied to the group and should surrender and not be allowed to re-enter ISIL held areas.
Why give them special consideration when the group they have pledged allegiance to actively seeks to kill civilians around the world. If they are there against their will, then they should be more than happy to surrender and stay out of those territories. How many men, women, and children have lost their lives because of this group? Do they stop and negotiate safe passage to the countless victims they kill in cold blood? No they don’t, they make theater out of beheadings and mass killings instead. With that said, I would never advocate for reciprocity here because that’s evil and I think the children can be saved and rehabilitated.
Unconditional surrender, you can’t negotiate with the devil.
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@EbrahimF
So you’re suggesting that the civilians trapped in the area should just be killed instead of negotiating a surrender?
How does that make us any better than IS? We should be better...
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And once everyone leaves they will all regroup and go right back to killing innocent people. They will learn from past mistakes and be even stronger. We can go to war after war and all we are doing is making their hatred for us stronger and stronger. Why can’t we just stay out of their countries and why can’t they just stop murdering innocent people? We cannot go on attempting to force our way of life on the rest of humanity and policing every other country that doesn’t conform to our ideals. We certainly don’t do well for all our own citizens when so many are homeless, hungry, and uncared about so we need to stop preaching to the rest of the world until we can take care of our own. But since war is such a money maker for so many banks and other corporations I don’t see any end in sight. Even if we leave Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq we will just start another war somewhere else.
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@David Parchert
David, as if American has not KILLED enough Innocent people: stating with Hiroshima, and lately in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia. America is also responsible for the thousands of innocent civilians killed by its surragates and corraltes (Mohammed bin Salman and Company) in Yemen. Whereever there is a killing foeld, eith America has started it or America wil find a reason to participate). This is the story of America, especially since WW2.
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@David Parchert They need to clean house. If your government cannot stop organized criminals, then your government has no reason to exist.
Echoing comments below about the journo and the photographer - emotive, important reporting. It's a privilege to read this paper and see articles/pictures like these.
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A moving report very graphically written, brought to my mind a memorable movie Lawrence of Arabia, arguably a masterpiece of a cinema and one of the greatest films ever made.
ISIS was born out of Anglo French imperial treachery. Little did the imperial masters realized by double crossing the Arabs it was sowing the seeds of hatred manifesting as Isis.
A century later effects of the Sykes-Picot treachery are still with us. Isis proclaimed the re-establishment of the caliphate; they did so with a video entitled The End of Sykes-Picot.
While there can no brief for murderous Isis thugs, underlying forces that press for a Sunni state that runs across the Sykes-Picot border – including large areas of Syria and Iraq – will not disappear, no matter who is in charge or what name given to them.
Brutal ideology of Isis will exist nebulously and will continue to pose deadly threat to nations. Permanent peace is possible with new borders based on ethnicity and religion rather than 100-year-old imperial design.
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There is some amount of crowing in the comments, and also critique of these victim's religion. Please keep in mind who it was that started the "war based on lies" which led to all this misery, the refugee problem in Europe, and several hundred thousand documented civilian deaths.
Also -- thanks to the writer and photographer for the article. A special shout out to the writer, who appears to be a woman of Indian origin. An international story from several angles!
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"He's not going to make it. His pulse is too low."—
Is surely not a logical medical assessment, even by a paramedic rather than a physician.
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The world has an opportunity here to try these men and women with justice, and dignity. Dignity they denied to their victims, but dignity that will show them what extremism stands for and what the modern world stands for. We have no need for torture or vengence, only justice. Anything less and we will never end this cancer that has plagued our civilization for the past 7 years.
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We are so good at getting countries to destroy themselves. the end result, of course, is the colonialists remain in control.
Consider the purpose of the 1,000 overseas US military bases. The product will be multi-lingual, European college educated cosmopolitan professionals that will be the next generation of corporate controllers. A worse outcome would be the global military complex will accomplish what Germany failed to do.
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The brutality of humans is really unparalleled. That reporting brought tears to my eyes. I tip my hat to those American volunteers working in those hellish conditions as angles. That is America that needs to shine in the media; in the midst of all this political turmoil we are currently living.
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Great - can we leave now that it appears that ISIS is defeated, and before our continued presence convinces Islamic extremists we are “crusaders” and serve as a recruiting tool for new terrorists? If history has taught us anything the last two decades it is that we cannot force countries in the Middle East to accept our values at gun point. The single most disturbing fact in Trump’s SOTU was that the military budget is 716 billion dollars - an obscene amount of money for a country that is not in an actual war with anyone, nor should we be. Where are the progressives demanding that the military budget be drastically reduced - that money could be used to fund repairing our infrastructure and other programs actually improving the average person’s quality of life rather than a bloated military industrial complex. Trump properly thanked veterans of the “greatest generation” for their service - but it should be noted that our standing peace time military prior to WWII was a mere fraction of the size and cost that it is today. America is fully capable of gearing up on short notice for an actual war if we need to do so, and as we did in WWII. It is time to heed Eisenhower’s warning and stop the stranglehold that the military has on our society.
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Brilliant and sensitive writing and photography. I don't claim to understand the situation but the balanced reporting gives one a momentary insight into the lives (and deaths) of some of the people caught up in this situation. The visuals will stay with me for a long time.
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Great reporting. Thank you.
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The debate surrounding US withdrawal from Syria and ISIS is far more complex than Americans know.
It is basic military strategy that to defeat an enemy one would target your opponent’s supply lines. Cutting off money, weapons, and manpower comes immediately to mind. The US did not attempt to do this. Why?
ISIS main target was not US troops nor even those many bands of combatants we trained and armed. It was Asad that ISIS directed its major efforts. In August 2012, the Defense Intelligence Agency identified ISIS and named it as the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria.” This report also identified the supply line of its power—“western countries, the Gulf states and Turkey.”
The decision to topple the Syrian government made ISIS possible, and remains the central reason why the Gulf states turn a blind eye to “private” citizens providing the wherewithal to back the latest version of al Qaeda—Tahrir al-Sham, which the Human Rights Watch reported on its abuses in Idlib.
What is the real reason for staying in Syria? If it was to defeat jihadism, we did not stop the arms or men flowing to them. We did not work with the Syrian and Russian governments to coordinate attacks against al Qaeda and its offshoots. The Kurds were not the first group we picked to train and arm to “fight” the terror groups.
ISIS and the Kurds appear to be pretense for a far more devious game American hawks want to play.
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Looks like ISIS is down to their last village. I am sure there are still those who have managed to slip away from this and other defeats to fight another day, but at least their caliphate in this part of the world is on the ash heap of history where it belongs.
No doubt many of the remaining fighters have escaped to other more unstable parts of the world to ply their trade but for sure there are those in hiding who will try to wreck havoc where they can. I hope at least they will have a lot more difficulty in sending out their beheading videos.
I also fervently hope we can bring our troops home and let Iraq, Iran, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon keep this pestilence in check if not completely destroyed.
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What you call as pestilence cannot be wished away. With no territory Isis will exist nebulously, till the undoing the historic blunder of The Sykes-Picot agreement, creating long, diagonal straight lines across the desert, gave Syria and Lebanon to the administrative control of the French, and Palestine, Jordan, the Gulf and Baghdad to the British.
Hundred years back Lawrence of Arabia refused knighthood and other medals in protest at the way in which the Arabs had been double-crossed by the British.
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ISIS was born out of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. When U.S. administrators, under Paul Bremer, decided to "de-Baathify" the Iraqi civil and military services, hundreds of thousands of Sunnis formerly loyal to Saddam Hussein were left without a job — and they were mad. Al Qaeda chose to capitalize on their anger and established al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) to wage an insurgency against U.S. troops in Iraq. Over time they made cause with even more extreme islamists and spread to Syria and beyond.
Thanks Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bolton et:al for your dishonest, ill advised, incompetently managed and ultimately disastrous war in Iraq.
Now Trump and Bolton want to remain in Iraq and do it all over again in Iran. What obscenity can another stupid war bring us to top ISIS?
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Wrong, the CIA created ISIS and they got out of control.
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@Mons Even if your assertion was true, I don't know how you could prove it. The alternative view expressed that you are denying fits the facts as we know them. How did the CIA create ISIS?
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@John Chastain You are incorrect. While the term may be relatively new, Sunni and Shiite extremists who demand adherence to Sharia under their Imam or Cleric have been trying to take over regions for centuries. And will likely continue.
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Assuming any of the ISIS fanatics are captured alive, what will be done with them? They sound too dangerous to ever be allowed to go free, ever.
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@RM They try to get a government to absorb them into the military. Or? There are stories about the resettlement of middle east militias.
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@RM
Humiliate the men, empower the women, and put them up against each other.
Put them in a chain gang and let them rebuild the destroyed cities. Let them clean up the sewer, let them build roads and the water supply.
Seclude the women in a dessert camp and tell them the only way out is to graduate in something useful, if they learn to build up a civilisation. That includes their children. Let the women gather knowledge and become bossy. And than let them command their own men in the chain gangs.
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@RM It's a major problem. The SDF don't want to house them indefinitely. The Forces that support them, (US) doesn't want the bad press of mass executions. There is often little actual evidence of ISI membership and even if there is, it's hard to prove actual crimes. Non of the foreign nationals countries want them back because their judicial systems are not equipped to actually convict these people to the full extent of the law. It is a major problem that I can't see a solution to.
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GREAT article. Most war reporting is statistical, distant, impersonal. This was good.
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Great reporting from the war zone. Hopefully Ms. Callimachi & Mr. Pickett will receive Pulitzer prize for risking their lives and filing compelling reporting on the ISIS' sordid saga. Thank you.
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Remember long ago when Obama was warned about ISIS and he said not to worry they were the JV team. Think of all the destruction that then ensued. He bears a much of the blame for the tragedy.
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Why don't we start focusing on the suppliers of the weapons systems that have destroyed this part of the world? Reinforced concrete buildings don't get blown apart with locally-made explosives and delivery systems unless it's fertilizer bombs and they are pretty hard to launch. U.S., France, Germany, Russia, Israel, Brazil, China . . . anybody want to stand up?
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Those deserts and semi-deserts will not support agriculture. So what do men do?...gunfighting and reproduction.
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@Heckler: I think you might reread your Middle Eastern geography. Think Tigris & Euphrates valleys. Breadbasket of the region for thousands of years.
A recent drought (and Assad’s ineffectual response to it) was, as I understand, one of the precipitant causes of the Syrian Sunni uprising.
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Thanks for the amazing work guys. Not to downplay the words, but those snaps are really something
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Fake news. Trump says that ISIS has basically been defeated and we don’t need to have more Americans killed or injured in Syria. The military and many in Congress, who depend on large campaign contributions from defense contractors, say more money and more lives must be spent. Recently liberal Margaret Brennan even questioned Trump on TV about his foolish plan to ignore the advice of his advisers.
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Do NOT let these ISIS fighters surrender...under any circumstances. If they live, it is guaranteed they will kill again, in Paris or London, Lisbon, Amsterdam or Mosow.
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@loulor A "no-quarter" struggle with ISIS and their allies, supports murder and massacre all over Asia. I'd rather not see that.
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"...American officials said that safe passage to the Syrian province of Idlib was still on the table..."
There we go again, with our value on human life.
ISIS are laughing all the way to the bank.
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@Frank J Haydn
...exact opposite. no value on human life. If we had any we wouldn't have fed, funded, armed and transported them into Syria to do our dirty bidding.
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In the birthplace of civilization ,their religion has turned everything into a pile of rubble and killed nearly everyone.
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It’s vital to winnow “their religion” from their interpretation of the world’s second largest religion
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Shame them with humanity.
Hand them out care-packages with a big american flag on it, and take pictures of it to send it to all the muslim world. Let western doctors treat them, for everyone to see. Send the messages, that we are so ahead, that we can even treat our enemies better than their own tribes. Let them know, they may have their ideology, but we got the superiority.
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@Mathias Weitz Excellent idea.
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Mathias Weitz, notice that your comment pits “humanity” against “all the Muslim world,” reasserting Orientalist tropes of the essential inhumanness of Islam and its practitioners, at the same time it affiliates “humanity” with America and the west. It’s a bit rich to pretend that “we” in the west are “so ahead” in our morals given that it’s precisely the heinous imperialist actions of western powers that birthed ISIS in the first place. The long history of this imperialism—replete with rapine, torture, and mass murder—exposes the fantasy of a west that “treats our enemies better than their own tribes.”
We can collectively oppose what ISIS stand for and even call for the just treatment of ISIS captives without lapsing into the hackneyed, and ultimately hateful, clash of civilizations thesis.
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@Mathias Weitz Never a good idea to oppress the losers of war. And while this isn't oppression under any standard, it is a design for embarrassment. That will only call more to their 'cause.'
I don't understand why the combined forces can't move in and arrest the militants, who are surrounded and outnumbered. Militarily, it shouldn't be too difficult.
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@Ambrose
Hostages.
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@Ambrose Armed religious zealots rarely allow themselves to get arrested. They surrender, or fight and die.
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Great reporting. Please update the story if you hear whether that young boy survived or not. War is always such a tragedy, and always worst for the weakest among us.
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@3swight I'm afraid his fate may be referenced in the article, though not by name, when it mentions that "Next to the freshly dug mound were three more, one of them just three feet long, the resting place of others who did not survive the caliphate."
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@bloggersvilleusa You may be right. I'm hoping when they drove him away, it meant he had a chance.
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This is tragic. What is more tragic is that ISIS could have been defeated in a matter of several weeks when they first attacked in Iraq at the city of Mosul.
When the attack began on Mosul, ISIS had already been in the field for several weeks, if not months, preying on loosely organized and poorly trained Iraqi regulars. They had some American arms but could not sustain themselves in battle for many reasons, including the withdrawal of the bulwark of substantial American brigades. Brigades that could have easily wiped out ISIS in weeks.
As the attack on Mosul began, the Pentagon, requested that President Obama authorize 3 heavy armored combat brigades to be dispatched to the battle. Pentagon officials knew they could roll up this offense by ISIS quickly. Obama however, in keeping a political promise and also because of his own fear, refused the request. The brigades, ready to roll, were never released. Mosul fell. ISIS rose and the long agonizing war we are now involved in began in earnest. The carnage of that war has displaced millions, killed hundreds of thousands and sent millions of others fleeing across the Mideast.
There is nothing to celebrate about having pushed ISIS into Baghuz. The price for this victory is ongoing military / civilian casualties. ISIS still flourishes.
Obama's fear, indeed his cowardice, caused this tragedy. Now Trump wants to walk away too. Feckless politicians cannot understand that sometimes total victory demands deep, deadly commitment.
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@Jay Obama was bound by the agreement that his predecessor had signed with the Iraqi government. He had no choice on troop withdrawals.
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@John Harper Obama could have negotiated or passed a new resolution. He did t because he didn’t want to hurt is peace loving legacy.
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@Letmeknow So, in your opinion, a succeeding president should not honor the word of a previous president? That explains why the rest of the world no longer trusts the US.
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Isis will inevitably resurface in the same or new incarnation unless there are serious efforts to educate and provide economic opportunities for these people. Who will be funding aid for these displaced families who managed to produce large numbers of children even in the midst of a brutal war.
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@Alex. They will also need. Family planning services. There will not be enough resources for huge population s warring among themselves.
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@Alex
Didn’t the thousands who traveled there from the west, including the US, get a good education? Get real.
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Many congratulations to U.S SOF, the militias, and all those who tirelessly worked to liberate the peoples of Syria and Iraq.
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I am wondering how many people these ISIS “fighters” murdered while they were in this village? How much money and valuable property did they loot?
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What a powerful piece of journalism. Heart wrenching—
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I feel like I’ve been dropped into the edge of war. I can still see upturned hands praying. We are doomed historically to history others do not believe.
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Can anyone imagine the horribleness of living like that depicted in the picture?
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What a wonderful image captured by Mr. Prickett with his camera-if you don't spend enough time on it, you'll likely, sadly, overlook the central figure's defiant, dignified glare at the camera. I can imagine she's thinking along the lines of-"enough of this..".
This one is for the ages.
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Congratulations to our armed forces and their allies that have taken part in this grim struggle. Thanks to the aid workers also.
So, where is Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi?
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@David Godinez
Apparently he is still alive.
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What a waste of humanity! Maybe a better world when the terrorists are eliminated. I hope so. Thank you US forces for your tenacity.
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@sherry pollack
We don’t eliminate them. We lock them up and then release them to kill again. We are weak willed.
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Thanks to the president's policies another win for Humanity, negotiation and diplomacy is worthless when dealing with terrorists.
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@obummer I believe the article referenced the negotiations that are still underway with the IS. It was mentioned that the negotiations, while controversial, have saved the lives of civilians and infrastructure, not to mention the captured prisoners. Negotiation with insurgent groups is only worth as much as the lives of those it saves.
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Crushingly sad human misery. Hard to read all the way through without a big lump in your throat.
Feeling horrible contempt for isis and their champagne against humanity, and yet I still I feel sorry for their ‘soldiers’, awaiting I’m sure horrible consequences. And I feel overwhelming pity and sadness for their wives and children.
Thank you humanitarian workers, thank you NYT reporters, and thanks for those who are helping to defeat isis.
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