Blought #24: The Division of Support for Paris

The terrorist attacks in Paris were unspeakable crimes against humanity. A total of 130 people lost their lives while hundreds more were injured making it the deadliest attack on France since WWII. The thing that got under my skin was the division of support for Paris. You had the people who showed support for Paris. There were the people who claimed no media outlets covered the attacks in Africa (You were probably more focused on America’s racial tensions more than Boko Haram kidnapping and killing Nigerian students.)

then there were the ones who had conspiracy theories about America helping ISIS expressing how “misinformed” Americans were or how changing your profile picture does nothing to help those effected. Think about a time your family member died. While your friend can’t bring that family member back, just saying “I’m sorry for your loss” can make you feel a lot better.


I wanted to get upset with many of my Facebook and Instagram friends, but there’s really no use in arguing over the internet. Then I realized something, the majority of Americans are severely misinformed about the World Human Rights Crisis that we are currently facing. The Middle East has been a hot bed of conflict for AGES. We’re taking biblical times son!

Support Paris and watch the world burn?

My mom once told me “the Bible says the Middle East will always be in some shit.” If history serves me right I think my mom had a point. From Greeks and Persians during the Greco-Persian Wars to the Catholics and Muslims during the crusades. The Middle East was even one of the main focal points of the Cold War. America wanted to keep communism out of the Middle East and the Soviets wanted to spread communism throughout the Middle East.

In later decades as America’s economy boomed we began to import most of our oil from over there as Russia went poor and lost pretty much all of their influence in the region. One of the main reasons Islamic terrorist cells hates America is because of our influence on their culture during the Cold War in addition to us raping them for oil.

These sentiments were the basis for both the CIA and World Trade Center attacks of 1993 and the September 11 attacks eight years later which became the deadliest terrorist attack in American history.

Despite how you feel about how Bush and Cheney (the real mastermind behind those eight years of fuckery) ran the country, going into the Middle East was a faint bright spot. Saddam should have been killed in the 90’s when he killed thousands of Kurdish people in separate genocidal acts during the late 1980’s in the Anfal genocide and the Halabja chemical attack. Osama Bin Laden could have been killed sooner as well but dead is dead right?


With no leader of Al-Quaeda and Iraq in a complete abysmal state after Obama pulled our troops out, ISIS had the perfect ingredients to begin their ascent to power. ISIS as we all should know is an Islamic Extremist Fundamentalist group formed in the late 90’s who wants to be recognized as the official state of Iraq. They claim to be the leaders of all Muslims in the world and they especially hate Shia Muslims, Alawites, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Syrian and Armenian Christians, Yazidis, Druze, Shabaks and Mandeans. All ethnic groups native to the Middle East.

ISIS were the main culprits of the Paris attacks. ISIS has also participated in the Syrian Civil War, Iraq War (2003–2011), Iraqi insurgency, Iraq War (2014–present), Second Libyan Civil War, Boko Haram insurgency in Africa, War in North-West Pakistan, War in Afghanistan and the Yemeni Civil War.

The point wasn’t to shine light on Paris more than other countries. ISIS is a part of a world wide terrorist network claiming war on humanity. The time couldn’t have been better for ISIS. With so many country’s recovering from revolutions and over thrown dictators, it was easy for ISIS to take the reigns as the top dog in the world of terrorism.

I explicitly remember when Arab Spring became a huge world news topic. As a journalism major that was all we talked and read about during the 2011 Spring semester. It all started in December of 2010 when a Tunisian man set himself on fire after claiming that he had been bullied by local officials while selling produce to help support his family.

Not long after protests began happening all over the Arab world including Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Syria and Morocco, Tunisia's government was overthrown in early January of 2011 which led to Egypt's Tajir Square Protests a little over a week later. By March of that year Syria had also begun nation wide protests.

Arab Spring protest in Bahrain calling for Democracy

By 2012 Syria was in a civil war with ISIS acting as a main belligerent. Egypt wouldn’t be able to overthrow their government until the summer of 2013. Now the plot thickens. During these conflicts, many of which became full blown wars, displaced citizens of the Middle East and Africa sought asylum in the European Union or EU.

Hop on a rickety boat and ride across the Mediterranean where Greece, Italy and Spain are all waiting for you to start a new life in a developed European country. That is if the boat you and hundreds of others are riding on doesn’t capsize taking you all down with it. During this time ISIS operatives pretended to be immigrants escaping their home countries when what they were really doing was planning to attack France and Belgium.

This is bigger than what my social media friends made it out to be. This is bigger than the media. This is a new world conflict that has to be resolved. We aren’t fighting a country but a network. A network of between a quarter to a half million strong and growing everyday. A network with an ideology that we can’t fight or get rid of. So put you personal, pessimistic “woke” views behind you and realize what this world is facing.