# Iraq: ISIS or ISIL? And...Caliphate? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 24, 2014, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517 "2014-06-24T05:32:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517/21 "2014-07-04T19:35:49Z")
It’s classic magical thinking: if only all true believers unite in purity against the corrupt world, the favor of heaven will descend, good will triumph over evil, and an earthly paradise will be established. It sounds laughable until you remember that this more or less describes Nazism, which showed us what sufficiently deluded fanatics can do. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517/22 "2014-07-04T23:02:51Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > **In the meantime the meteor of doom continues on its course with the mad man Obama laughing derisively at the “colonialist empire” he is wreaking havoc on and bringing down. The great Satan allowed its guard to slip and a quisling agent to penetrate. His work of devastation is not done and he has spread his manure of deceit across the land again.** You know I was all set to write this off as silly when I found an interesting article. Evidently, astronomers in Ukraine [have made in important discovery…](http://gawker.com/ukraine-name-a-star-putin-is-a-dickhead-1600039424) ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517/23 "2014-07-05T11:52:15Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > Oh, HELL yeah! Though thinking of Joanna Cameron has made listening to the news a lot easier. She was one for the dads on Saturday morning TV, like the Pink Ranger. Ha, good point–although I certainly didn’t catch it then. We must be a pretty select group, given that we were all almost certainly born during a relatively small window of time during the “baby bust”. (Anyone who makes this connection not born between, say, '66 and '73?) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517/24 "2014-07-05T14:38:40Z")
Whenever some radical group scores a minor victory in the interminable fighting in the Middle East, they announce that the Caliphate is about to return, with their Fearless Leader as the Caliph. About as meaningful as “the South will rise again!” ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517/25 "2014-07-05T16:45:52Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > (Anyone who makes this connection not born between, say, '66 and '73?) Yeah, '54. I was in the target audience. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2014, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517/26 "2014-07-05T17:13:48Z")
> [@Claverhouse](#): > > His work of devastation is not done and he has spread his manure of deceit across the land again. Well, he’s got a solid agricultural policy, at least. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/iraq-isis-or-isil-and-caliphate/691517.md?page=1)