The Evolution of Islamic Extremism

The Political Scene | The New Yorker

The New Yorker

Washington, News, Politics, President, Wickenden, Wnyc, Barack, Obama, Lizza

4.3 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2015

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

On this week’s Political Scene podcast, the New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson joins host Dorothy Wickenden to talk about the current status of the war against Islamic radicalism. The two discuss the ways in which terrorism is expanding across the Middle East, the dystopian vision of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), and the limited impact of ISIS’s defeat in the Syrian town of Kobani. “Once again they have been stopped on the Turkish border, but they have found ways in which to appear to be important,” says Anderson. “In this rarefied media world that we live in, what gets more headlines: The fact that ISIS was pushed out of Kobani or this horrific hostage situation with the Japanese journalist and the Jordanian pilot?”

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0:00.0	Hi there, I'm Lale Arikoglu, and this podcast is brought to you by Wilderness, a conservation-driven
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0:36.6	fashion over and over again.
0:39.0	Your favorite designers, expertly authenticated. Yeah, eBay. Things people love.
0:47.4	This is the political scene, a weekly conversation with New Yorker writers and editors about
0:51.9	politics. It's Friday, January 30th. I'm Dorothy Wickendon, executive editor of The New Yorker writers and editors about politics. It's Friday, January 30th.
0:54.6	I'm Dorothy Wickenden, executive editor of The New Yorker.
0:57.9	Here is President Obama in August 2012
1:00.7	speaking about Syria's Bashar Assad.
1:03.8	I have indicated repeatedly that President Al-Assad has lost legitimacy,
1:09.7	that he needs to step down.
1:11.6	Last August, Obama announced airstrikes against the terrorist group ISIS or ISIL.
1:17.6	My fellow Americans, tonight I want to speak to you about what the United States will do with our friends and allies
1:24.6	to degrade and ultimately destroy the terrorist group known as ISIL.
1:29.6	John Lee Anderson is here today to discuss why the West appears to be losing the war against ISIS.
1:35.2	Maybe, John Lee, let's start with this question.
1:37.3	Which war are we fighting against Assad or ISIS?
1:40.5	We're fighting against ISIS.
	...

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