OTM #3

In search of a new narrative. With this last terror attack that we unfortunately again had to witness in Brussels, Belgium it is becoming increasingly dangerous in our world that terror attacks can and will happen no matter how hard we try to stop them. We engage these war on terrorism statements and declarations of war against ISIS and its group members. But it wasn’t until hearing this and thinking about this a little deeper did I begin to agree strongly with what was being said, that this is exactly what they want us to do. They are looking for a fight they are looking for declarations of war so that they can continue to carry out these attacks against innocent people. We are essentially fueling the fire in which we are trying to put out. They play heavy into the publicity of the coverage that these attacks receive because their sole intention is to destroy the world in which innocent people are living in today. Using a militaristic vocabulary influences them to want to continue what they are doing because war is what they want. Once we begin to use these terms it is hard to turn back from that.

Nicolas Henin who was held captive by ISIS begins to comment on our misconceptions of how ISIS operates and I found it very interesting as to what he said. He starts with saying one of our main mistakes as a western continent has is that ‘ISIS is a problem” he states that “ISIS is the result of a problem.” Violence creates violence and hate feeds hate. These are the notions behind our thinking is what Nicolas Henin tells us about what they think about western populations. I found it interesting his comments about western media and our obsession with Jihadists. He goes into saying that as western media is influencing their success and reign of terror. We have put them on a pedestal as the worst “bad guys” in history and any young kid from a small village who wants to be a rebel will think about joining them because they’re the best and they get the most media coverage. This actually helps their recruiting process he states that the western media is helping to build ISIS and spread their messages because of the amount of coverage that they get from their attacks. He begins to talk about the best ways to stop them from doing what they are doing and I honestly have to agree after listening to this, but it is not by using bombs and guns but rather by killing the narrative. Countries are making big mistakes by giving them the media that they are receiving we can longer continue to use the media to spread their messages for them. This makes me think about an old saying that needs to be implemented into our thinking and that is “if it were an eye for an eye then we all would be blind by now.” This is how I feel, we are trying to fight fire with fire by implementing war on ISIS, and yes I agree that we need to find a way to stop these attacks. But rather we should try to look into ways to stop spreading their image and their attacks to the rest of the world, I feel we are only adding to the problem with the amount of media we use and not actually solving it.