Juan Cole: Is ISIL’s ‘Shock and Awe’ more Awe-ful because One Victim?

[pampango]

28. Aljazeera: If terror is political theatre, ISIL is an Oscar winner

Despite Syrian regime's barrel bombs, stories of ISIL hostages dominate the airwaves.

There can be little doubt over the effectiveness of ISIL's hostage-taking as a tactic. By contrast to the large scale indiscriminate bombing of a city that kills and maims hundreds (the scenes like those we fleetingly see from Aleppo) hostage-taking allows attention to zero in on the very human story of an individual.

ISIL, the extremist offshoot of an extremist organisation, is using the tools of globalisation to enact spectacular acts of hostage killing to capture and shape the agenda of the Syrian and Iraqi crises.

The horror and profile of these acts puts decision makers in a difficult position. While each killing brings out a round of condemnations and lots of use of words like "barbarians", "sadistic" or "savages", it also alters the dynamics of the US-led coalition currently operating against ISIL.

In short, the taking and killing of hostages provides compelling narratives within large scale and complex conflicts and their value to ISIL is clear, as we see for the investment they put into the films of the executions themselves and the responses from the political actors involved.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2015/02/terror-political-theatre-isil-oscar-winner-150207065650097.html