{"id":26475,"date":"2014-06-24T11:51:19","date_gmt":"2014-06-24T16:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=26475"},"modified":"2014-06-24T11:51:19","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T16:51:19","slug":"isis-rejected-al-qaedas-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/06\/24\/isis-rejected-al-qaedas-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"ISIS rejected Al Qaeda&#8217;s &#8220;rules&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In <em>Slate<\/em>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.slate.com\/articles\/news_and_politics\/frame_game\/2014\/06\/osama_bin_laden_s_seven_rules_for_terrorists_isis_will_regret_not_following.html\" target=\"_blank\">Will Saletan<\/a> explains how ISIS deliberately cast aside Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda&#8217;s &#8220;seven rules for effective terrorism&#8221;. Is this evidence that ISIS is too extreme and will destroy itself or is it wishful thinking?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is scaring the hell out of everyone. It has infested Syria, overrun Iraq, alarmed Iran, and convinced U.S. politicians it\u2019s the most dangerous terrorist organization ever. But frightening everyone isn\u2019t a long-term growth strategy. ISIS is destroying itself.<\/p>\n<p>Al-Qaida, the organization from which ISIS recently split, understands this truth. For years, Osama Bin Laden and his lieutenants tried to explain to their affiliates the folly of unchecked brutality. In letters and directives captured in the 2011 raid on his compound, Bin Laden stressed the importance of patience, discretion, and public opinion. His advice, boiled down to seven rules, forms a clear outline of ISIS\u2019s mistakes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>1. Don\u2019t fight civil wars.<\/strong> Bin Laden recognized that battling for territory against local governments was a lousy way to get to theocracy. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. Don\u2019t kill civilians.<\/strong> That was Bin Laden\u2019s principal regret. He called for guidelines that would instruct jihadists to avoid \u201cunnecessary civilian casualties.\u201d [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. Don\u2019t flaunt your bloodlust.<\/strong> One of the captured al-Qaida letters, believed to have been written by Bin Laden or his aide, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, urges al-Qaida\u2019s Yemeni affiliate to \u201cstay away from words that will affect the people\u2019s support to the mujahidin.\u201d [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Don\u2019t rule harshly.<\/strong> Bin Laden was a theocratic fundamentalist, but he cautioned his allies to avoid the \u201calienation from harshness\u201d that was \u201ctaking over the public opinion.\u201d [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Don\u2019t claim territory unless you can feed the people.<\/strong> [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>6. Don\u2019t fight with your allies.<\/strong> Bin Laden tried to rein in the fratricidal belligerence of ISIS\u2019s precursor organization, al-Qaida in Iraq. [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><strong>7. Don\u2019t alarm your enemies prematurely.<\/strong> In 2010, Bin Laden advised his followers in Yemen not to escalate the war there, in part because \u201cthe emergence of a force in control of the Mujahidin in Yemen is a matter that provokes our enemies internationally and locally and puts them on a great state of alert.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Slate, Will Saletan explains how ISIS deliberately cast aside Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda&#8217;s &#8220;seven rules for effective terrorism&#8221;. Is this evidence that ISIS is too extreme and will destroy itself or is it wishful thinking? The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria is scaring the hell out of everyone. It has infested [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[370,5,53,11],"tags":[387,333,982,257],"class_list":["post-26475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-middle-east","category-military","category-politics","category-religion","tag-alqaeda","tag-iraq","tag-isis","tag-terrorism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-6T1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26475"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26477,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26475\/revisions\/26477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}