La Salle Professor: Response To ISIS Should Be Escalation On A Scale Similar To What They Display
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Gary R'Nel spoke with Ed Turzanski, the John Templeton Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a Political Science Professor at La Salle University, on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT about the video released showing a Jordanian pilot being burned alive by ISIS.
Turzanski said the video has a very clear political purpose: to attract more recruits.
"It is unspeakably barbaric and heinous, but it is about 22 minutes in length, and it is very sophisticated...cutaways, the use of digital enhancements, different angles of recording. They spent a lot time and effort to put this together, because this kind of, we'll call it 'violence smut' or 'violence porn' is a very powerful recruiting tool for ISIS and Islamists in general."
He suggested the response to ISIS' violence should be escalation on a scale similar to what they display.
"If ISIS is burning their prisoners to death in cages, one wonders how much worse things can get. I understand, and it's very much a Western temptation to say that, 'If we're only more calm, rational, and reasonable, the other side will behave the same way.' Well, no. They catch our people. They cut their heads off. They catch the Jordanian's people; they burn them alive in cages. Maybe it's time to push back as hard."
Turzanski also stated one of the best ways to confront terrorists like ISIS could be to arm governments looking to fight back against them.
"More and more, you have people in the region who don't want American boots on the ground, they want assistance from the US in terms of weapons and technical assistance so that they can clean their own houses. We should take this offer very seriously."