There Is Only One Way to Defeat ISIS

High-cost military equipment like fighter jets or missile defense shields won’t stop coordinated terrorist attacks like those in Paris against youth enjoying city life on a Friday night. Intrusive surveillance won’t prevent brothers, roommates or loners contemplating suicide and plotting murder, argues Charles Pierce for Esquire: “Abandoning the Enlightenment values that produced democracy will not plumb the depths of the vestigial authoritarian impulse that resides in us all…. ” The West must get tough with elites and clerics in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar who support extremists in attacking western culture to distract from severe inequality in their own lands. In a passionate essay posted shortly after the attacks, Pierce urges sanctions, financial restrictions and an end of weapons sales to Gulf State oligarchies: “It's time to be pitiless against the bankers and against the people who invest in murder to assure their own survival in power. Assets from these states should be frozen, all over the west.” – YaleGlobal