In the absence of effective state efforts, will a new Knights Templar emerge to fight terrorists trying to define Islam in their image?
ISIS has arisen to fill that gap [that developed in Iraq and Syria as the governments faltered], but something else will arise to push back against it, since states cannot. That something won’t be the Templars, exactly, but it will also not be a state. It will instead be new non-state networks to funnel money and fighters against ISIS.
There are already reports of Americans and other Westerners going to join the Kurdish militias; how long before the Christian communities in Iraq and other ethno-sectarian communities under assault begin to attract adherents as well?
The war against ISIS and radical Islam may not always be state versus non-state, but perhaps eventually non-state versus non-state. Popularized violence and popularized sovereignty; more efficient, certainly, to cut out the middleman. It would be the return of de Molay, at least for a while, until they don’t need him anymore.
Yeah, I've expected that for years should our state-led efforts falter (this quote is from 2006):
We face enemies who draw support from traditional states but do not rely on them. Waging war by private groups has been made more lethal by modern technology. Cheap and readily available weapons, modern communications gear (Internet and satellite phones), and WMD--from poison gas to Anthrax to dirty bombs to perhaps nuclear weapons--are no longer state monopolies. Warfare is being privatized by our enemies.
And if our Western governments fail to wage war effectively, will private Western warfare be far behind? Much as vigilantes arise when police and courts cannot provide security, will private groups strike back at whatever target they believe responsible for jihadis?
The Pope hasn't gotten to this stage. Not yet, anyway. But the jihadis have been noticed.
This is just one reason it is so important for Western governments to wage the war on these jihadi scum and not try to pretend like the war is won or not even a war at all.
If it evolves into a war of parts of Western societies against parts of Islamic societies, we will have our clash of civilizations.
And then the Devil take the hindmost.
UPDATE: Via Instapundit.
