When Australians hear about Foreign Minister Julie Bishop’s dire warnings and counter-terrorism raids, they could lose historical perspective on the threat posed by Islamic State.
AAP/Mal Fairclough
Dire government warnings and counter-terrorism raids in our suburbs paint a picture of the worst threat Western nations have ever faced. A little historical perspective is in order.
When not employing the description ‘death cult’, Prime Minister Tony Abbott prefers to use the name Da'esh because the group ‘hates being referred to by this term’.
AAP/Lukas Coch
The terrorist group now calls itself Islamic State, but the many names by which it is known reflect both its own evolution and the deliberate choices others make in how they refer to it.
Families cross the Euphrates River seeking the relative safety of Baghdad as Islamic State fighters advance with the goal of creating such violence that people turn from the government to any force capable of restoring peace.
EPA/Ahmed Jalil
Islamic State is a project built on solid foundations by jihadist theorists with decades of experience. The savagery of terrorism precedes the next stage of a caliphate that delivers longed-for order.
Come together: Tunisians protest the attack on the Bardo Museum.
EPA/Mohamed Messara
ISIS’s destruction of archeological treasures is horrifying but reflects a too-human history of obliterating the past of “enemy” cultures. Moreover, all is not really “lost.”
Last week the race for the Republic presidential nomination was kicked off in earnest by the Conservative Political Action’s annual Conference. Yes, they all, predictably, want to “save our country” from…
Mourning their Coptic brethren, murdered by ISIS.
Asmaa Waguih/Reuters
Last week, London’s mayor Boris Johnson generated a largely negative reaction when he described European jihadis as “wankers” – people who feel they are failures and that the world is against them. Now…
A screenshot from the account while under hostile control.
Reuters
The Twittersphere is abuzz about the news on Monday that ISIS or their affiliates are suspected of hacking and compromising the US Central Command’s official Twitter account. As of Monday afternoon in…
Masoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and Peshmerga on the border.
Rudaw News Agency
After overrunning Mosul in June 2014, Islamic State (IS) hastily and brutally occupied soft targets in poorly protected areas of ethnic minorities – the villages of Kurds, Christians, and Yezidis on the…
Committed to boots on the ground … at West Point.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Instigated once again by events in the Middle East, talking heads in Washington have renewed a debate about whether America should have a grand strategy and, if so, what form it should take. This extends…
Propaganda won’t affect you if you’re not listening.
Sonya Song
ISIS is winning the propaganda war, it’s been said, and top brass from the European Commission, EU member state governments, and representatives of Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have met to discuss…
An Australian Super Hornet refuels from a KC30 tanker while flying over Iraq.
@VCDF_Australia/Twitter
There are two reasons why we should ignore the growing calls in the United States, Canada and Australia for Western “boots on ground” – meaning ground troops – to fight and destroy the Islamic State (IS…
Islamic State flags flown by militants in the east of the Syrian city of Kobanê, within sight of the Turkish border.
EPA/SEDAT SUNA
The black flag of ISIS has been sighted in the Syrian city of Kobanê. For three weeks, heavily armed ISIS gangs have advanced on Kobanê – also known as Ayn al-Arab – steadily pushing back the local YPG…
Known as White Rocks, this quartz outcrop was the site of a three-hour gun battle in 1915 between police and two Afghans, who had shot and killed picnickers leaving Broken Hill.
Amanda Slater/Flickr
It’s another hot Australian New Year’s Day, and 1200 people are aboard a train bound for a picnic when a burst of gunfire shatters the festive atmosphere. Police return fire, killing the attackers – but…
On Saturday October 4 we woke up to the news that looked depressingly inevitable. Alan Henning, a taxi driver from Salford, who had been captured in Syria last December while delivering aid to refugees…
‘The danger is clear’: Theresa May.
Joe Giddens/PA Wire
A few hours before the UK’s first air strikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq, the home secretary, Theresa May, warned the Tory party conference that IS could become the "world’s first truly terrorist…
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced Australian forces will be part of an international coalition against ISIL.
Tracey Nearmy/AAP
The government will deploy a contingent including up to eight Super Hornets and special forces – involving 600 personnel in total – as part of the American-led coalition’s operations against ISIL (Islamic…