What Does World War III Look Like? It is ISIS!

At the end of August, I published a blog entry discussing the need to take ISIS out. For whatever reason, that post didn't light too many fires. I wondered why...because I believe that the subject of ISIS (or ISIL) is perhaps the single most broadly threatening issue of our times - it now makes the nightly news internationally. However, I am equally certain  that most people think that, while a hideous manifestation, ISIS is pretty much about the Middle East and not about Canada...and that is just plain wrong! 

In that post, I asked this question: what happens when some of our own decide they don't like the way we do things here in Canada, leave the country for indoctrination and training in a different and radical way of life, then re-enter Canada as Canadians (because they are)...except that now they are amongst us with a new objective of radically changing our customs and laws? Nobody commented and nobody has offered any reasonable answer. That is perplexing because the question describes what is actually happening right now!

The challenge for ISIS is not to revolt us with an on-screen beheading or two or three. That part is easy for them and they've done it, will again. I have actually heard people say "well, if those guys (the victims) hadn't tempted fate by putting themselves in harm's way, they'd be alive today". Pretty uninformed comment. Others prefer to believe it's all about Israel...another "Jewish problem". To both of those views, I say nonsense...you're ostriches. This is about anything and anyone in the world that isn't Sunni Muslim. And it is by no means particular to the Middle East (much less Israel which is not involved). It is everywhere now and we'll see that manifesting very soon, I fear. 

If you wondered, as I did, whether there would ever be a World War III and, if so, what it would look like, let me point to ISIS. World War III has arrived and it is a worldwide conflict of ideologies. What is ISIS and why should anyone reading this care? ISIS is a well-financed, highly organized, training-reliant, social media-savvy terror group...terrorists who want to instigate and create religious war in the name of their fundamentalist interpretation of Islam which is in line with their quest for an all-Muslim world. The first line of attack for people we call terrorists is to inspire fear or to 'terrorize'. Second and, simultaneously, they need to make good on their threats, hence the videos of beheadings we have now become familiar with...they have our attention and that of our governments. That attention has created a coalition of the willing...countries that have formed a kind of "cooperative" to rain airstrikes down on ISIS locations. Good? Yes, but not good enough. 

Canada is involved...I could say it's only minimal but placing any Canadians in harm's way is a serious commitment. My view about this, however, is that in many endeavours, the operative adage must be 'in for a penny, in for a pound'. In other words, if we have 100 advisors in Iraq and/or Syria on the ISIS project, they are all potential victims. And if we are there with potential victims (as are our partners), couldn't we put enough manpower and materiel on the line to ensure that we win the day and win for all time? That means that I believe in boots on the ground being essential. Could we suffer losses? Yes...indeed, we would. But here's another (and more populist) adage 'pay me now or pay me later'. I will say, without hesitation, that Canada will, at some point, put boots on the ground as will the United States and Great Britain...France already has. And we need Muslim countries to do likewise. They are already anti-ISIS and so demonstrating by joining the coalition of countries launching airstrikes meant to degrade this hideous organization.  

ISIS is in growth mode. It was unheard of a year ago. It was able to take advantage of weaknesses within the Iraqi government and military and of disarray in Syria, in civil war for several years. But, make no mistake, it is an amalgam of rag-tag stragglers, malcontents, and religious nut bars who may well have come from Al Quaeda, Al Shebab, Hamas, Hezbollah and (terrifyingly) from the house next door to you! Yes, there are Canadian and American and British kids being trained alongside many from other countries. Some of them are back among us now and others will be soon. The plan is to cause chaos domestically. Are we prepared to leave it to our police forces, secret and otherwise, to do what was done in Australia recently...interdict the bad guys? To an extent, yes. But, I mean no disrespect in saying that some of this evil will slip through the cracks and tremendous damage could be done with great harm to civilian populations. What is our military for if not to allay both those fears and, indeed, change that reality?

In my original piece on ISIS, I said this..."We see equality and human rights as a basic concept and they do not. No god figure in the history of human religious practice has ever called for the eradication of every non-believer the world over and, by the way, that includes the God of Islam, Allah. To suggest otherwise is to misinterpret, twisting words in order to make them fit with one's own agenda."

I went on to question the sanity of it. Sane people simply do not cut the heads off guiltless (or any other) human beings to make some point and this behaviour used to literally terrorize on a world scale is intolerable. Left unchecked, it is an exportable behaviour and it will be coming to Canada! If we don't make the full commitment to destroying ISIS, it is at our peril. And, not to politicize this any more than it does in and of itself, it is not helpful that the de facto leader of the "degrade and destroy" coalition is a weak sister in the person of President Barack Obama.

I am not the least bit interested in Islamic fundamentalism or Sharia Law except as it affects me, my family, people I know, and my country. If what it takes to keep that nonsense out of Canada is an active military mission, I'm supportive. I think this is so urgent and so required that I'd go so far as to say that I'd support it even if it meant an increase to my taxes. In a survey published very recently, Americans at large said as much to the tune of about 60% of those surveyed. I hope our countries and their leaders hear us before it is too late.

Those who know me would readily attest that I do not countenance violence or killing. But they also know that if the option morphs into 'kill or be killed', the rules change. If we do not make the hard choices now, ISIS will continue to expand, hence my contention that we are staring into the face of WWIII. The initial phase of WWII saw Hitler, a really swell fella compared to this collection of misfits, seize a neighbouring country. Soon afterwards, he began killing those he believed to be inferior human beings. I think we're well past all of that with ISIS. Let us act now.

Peter

Who’s In Charge Now? Move Over Boomers!

What makes today’s young families different from my own young family back in the eighties? Don't parents still want the best for their kids...a great education, nice vacations, a safe and decent home in which to live? Of course they do. But, there are things they don’t want…like confrontation, for example. Younger people called "millennials" seek compromise and are prepared to give and take in order to achieve resolution of issues before going forward. This is why we find politics, business, marketing, opinion leadership…everything…in the most significant state of change we’ve ever witnessed. Why would Justin Trudeau make marijuana a pivotal point in taking on the governing Harper Conservatives? Because his party researchers discovered that the issue is no longer of importance to a massively growing segment of the adult population who are just moving on...and he's impacted positively in the polls.

I watched a video of a speech delivered recently by a highly respected radio programmer who dates back to my time in managing that business. It didn’t tell me a lot I didn’t know but it certainly reminded me of some thoughts I’d “misplaced”. The first is that the baby boom (my) generation no longer pilots the pace car…that job has been handed to the millennials. Who are they? They are baby boomers’ kids…sometimes called ‘Generation Y’ or ‘echo kids’, they were born between about 1977 and the late nineties…so young families where parents are in their early thirties are the leading edge. The singles, and there are many, count too. It’s the next great generation, size-wise, and makes up about 25-30% of the population. We cannot underestimate its importance…it is  why social conservatism is fading away and why my generation (which tends to plant its feet in cement and takes intransigent positions) doesn’t communicate well with millennials.

Experts suggest millennials, like every prior generation, are a product of their  environment and the prevailing conditions of their formative years. This group has many of the traits of its' grandparents' generation but not so much of its'  parents’ approach to life. They are more civic-minded and care about their community, both locally and globally. They are prepared to contribute but, unlike their parents, their mantra is compromise and not confrontation. They don’t care for institutional groups but enjoy broadened friendships and they communicate directly using the tools they were given, basically at birth, and which have been refined and improved ever since. While my generation looks back and longs for the “good old days”, millennials (50%) say the best years are yet to come. Perhaps that’s because they inherited unemployment and student debt versus the great post WWII times our parents gave to us.

Baby boomers continue to discuss same sex relationships, abortion, legalization of marijuana, and universal health care. Millennials are past those decisions and are now well down the road onto newer concerns which include creating wealth and do not include politics as we know it. In fact, they are more fiscally conservative than we are..not at all extravagant...and socially, they have become extremely liberal. What does this say about how society is going to be managing itself and developing good governance going forward? Think compromise and you're on the right track. 

Millennials have delayed significantly on a number of things we boomers did early…leaving their parents’ homes; getting married; having children (if/when/how many); seeking meaningful work (which is far less plentiful). And they are, for the most part, neither concerned with nor tolerant of organized religion. It is no surprise that Pope Francis, in an effort to relate that I don't view as coincidental, is more interested in having gay couples show up for mass than dispatching them from church altogether by criticizing their orientation.

It is difficult to entertain or inform millennials because they have the power to self-deliver what they want to see and hear whenever and wherever they like. City dwellers are less concerned with having cars; more concerned about who their friends are and with how they look. They have little time for bullshit and can detect it a mile away…they demand authenticity. For opinion leaders and politicians, this is a sea change, a curve ball...because millennials “get it” when messages are being crafted for them. They want and can readily identify ideas and policies that directly matter to them. They want truth and they expect us to admit when we’re wrong because being wrong sometimes is okay with them...nobody's perfect.

Millennials are just more easygoing. Hype them and they’ll run the other way. That changes how things are decided, advertised, sold, or discussed. Think of a traditional menu as an example..."farm fresh eggs" had better be fresh from the farm! Consider visual advertising or TV talk shows. Millennials are less “Meet the Press” and more “The View”, less Brian Williams and more Jon Stewart. They believe that fairness and respect actually matter. One might argue that our generation did that too…but we’d be deceiving ourselves. What millennials seek is a mutual evenhandedness which our generation feigned more than practiced. It's about having a discussion where we sometimes actually walk away "agreeing to disagree" yet not thinking less of the person heading in the opposite direction.

Here’s something really wonderful and perhaps surprising about millennials…they are optimists. They maintain their dreams because, unlike us, they were born into a significantly more difficult period than prior generations. That helps them to be happy because dreaming is a happy pursuit. Baby boomers, for the most part, were handed a lot and taught to always expect more. It isn't that previous generations didn't seek happiness...they did! But millennials put a higher premium on being liked and being viewed as fun to be around than their forbears did. I look back at myself and my contemporaries while in our thirties and we wanted (demanded?) respect and control…being liked was a nice added (but not required) benefit.

Millennials thrive on diversity – different kinds of people, different fields of endeavor, different ideologies. They appreciate an open society and, in fact, their kids will likely be the first generation in western society that will not be white-dominated. Quite a change in fifty years, right?

It’s a strange thing to view myself as “older” - I discussed that in my first ever "Shurmanations" blog - it’s hard for everyone. But, for me, my lengthy career has mostly been about the marketing of ideas. Broadcasting and politics have been dominant themes in my life and were primary in terms of both medium and message for the boomer years. Now, with no surprise, the media are social in nature while the message is about vast choice and compromise. And so the result is that my generation either "gets with the program" or has an unenjoyable time to look forward to watching from the cheap seats for the twenty or thirty years we have left.

Peter