Someone said it best: At the end of the day, all ISIS is, is several thousand people riding pickup trucks and carrying AK-47s.
I disagree. They clearly aren’t going to end the West, but the Paris attacks, the bombing of the Brussels airport, and various other things they have done are not adequately explained by your pithy little phrase there.
Except “ISIS” is just the name local crazies scream when they carry out lone wolf attacks. Get rid of ISIS and they’ll just pledge allegiance to whatever other Islamic terrorist organization is getting the most press.
Notice how the lone wolf attackers don’t talk about Al Qaeda anymore? It’s all ISIS, ISIS, ISIS? Why is that? And once ISIS is gone, they’ll start talking about Boko Haram, or whatever.
Yes and no. Da-esh has been especially adept at recruiting foreign fighters. Moreso than AQ or BH. So yeah, some “confused youth” will glom on to whichever group is the news the most, but a good recruiting outfit, like Da-esh, can do much more than just capture the minds of a few mixed up kids.
Is it your contention that the Paris attacks would have happened if ISIL or AQ simply did not exist? I think there’s a substantial probability that it would not have, regardless of whose banner is responsible. Because relatively few terrorist groups advocate for, and supply assistance either directly or indirectly to, attacks against the West. Far for terrorist groups simply want to be active in their own neighborhood.
None of the hundreds of Turks (mostly Kurdish Turks) and dozen or so foreigners who’ve been victims of ISIS attacks in Turkey were maimed or killed by ‘lone wolfs’. But then again, who gives a flying fuck about Muslims dying in terrorist attacks?