Leading the World in the Wake of Terror: United as One.

The reach of the Islamic State is far more constrained than we might think. The IS is not a traditional state in the sense that anyone in modern politics is accustomed to, and just as we have said for years: because they are not a traditional state traditional rules of engagement do not apply to the IS. America, among many fighting back against the IS, have had trouble developing effective tactics to eradicate the IS and rarely had monumental success against the terrorist organization. However just as the limits of nontraditional warfare against an organization such as the IS restrain the US military, there are also significant limitations to the capabilities of the IS. The primary weapon of this group is fear; it’s not bombs, not guns, nor arms of any kind but fear, an attack like the one the world witnessed is horrible, it is horrible that over 120 people died and over 300 injured.

However a lot more people than that die every single day, the true weapon of the IS is not the ability to kill people, it’s fear and fear is exactly the goal of these people. The reason that the IS carries out these acts of terrorism is because they cannot affect the world on a massive scale in any other way. By killing a hundred human beings in one of the safer countries on the planet they look to scare us, they want to create instability between us they want us to fight over how to fight them, to make it so that Islamic people in the Europe and around the world will be discriminated against. Creating fear and suspicion is their only tool to affect the members of humanity who are not within their immediate geopolitical influence. The label “terrorist organization” is not just some arbitrary title given to these illegal groups terror is their primary form of affecting the rest of the world and we cannot fall prey to their fundamental weapon we validate the reason of these horrible attacks. The one thing we cannot do for this group is legitimize their motives.

So, what is the correct response? There is nothing more important than unity, there is no minority which condemns these attacks more than the Islamic people. Stand together, help each other, create an atmosphere of understanding between all peoples of the world. There is no logical reason for all members of the global community to not stand together against the IS. Don’t do it for some ridiculous philosophical theory of interconnectedness, or archaic religious values, the global political benefits of uniting the world against our enemies should seem to be the obvious solution. Not only is the evidence for unity against a threat have political roots but can also can be verified as a biological strategy as well, the ability to unify against a common enemy will ensure the future of all parties. To unify against the IS is not simply just a coalition of fighters against these terrorists but also assisting in the rebuilding and recovery of those affected by the IS. America’s response to the monstrous attacks on Parisian soil should be one of understanding and tolerance of the Muslim people all over the world. Of course this does not mean that military responses to the IS in Syria should not be pursued, certainly punishment must fall on those who unprovokedly attack our allies. However the political message of the United States of America to the world should be to lead in: Unity above all else.