Article of the Week - 2/25/2015

     When ISIS posted threats stating that ISIS is planning to attack Rome, the Italians showed their fearlessness. Italians ridiculed ISIS by posting mockery on social media, 

"#We_Are_Coming_O_Rome We are ready to meet you! We have nice Colosseum plot for sale, Accept Credit Cards Securely, bargain price."

     Thomas L. Friedman believes that this course of action is the correct way to go about with things. Mr. Friedman explains to us why we should have no reason to fear ISIS. Stating that the truth of ISIS is that "Some are hardened jihadists, but many are just losers, misfits, adventure seekers and young men who’ve never held power, a job or a girl’s hand and joined ISIS to get all three". He uses this ideology to create a solution for this problem. To discredit ISIS and publicize the truth. Because terrorist's only weapon is terror.

      Mr. Friedman is trying to stop ISIS' advance. He's attempting to destroy the one weapon that terrorists have, terror. He is going through with his actions by ridiculing them and telling us that there is no reason to have that kind of terror. He publicizes the truth of ISIS, that they're a mix of untrained men who joined ISIS because they had no other place in society.

     The author states that ISIS is made up of three loose factions. The second faction, the Sunni, (Which is the majority of the ISIS) used to be in control of Iraq for quite some time. They lost that power recently, so I believe that Friedman has some truth in what he's stating. That the Sunni maybe in shock from their loss in power and joined ISIS in an attempt to regain that power.

     The author also states that another faction is made up of foreign volunteers. I don’t see any other reason for foreigners to join ISIS except for greed: “Some are hardened jihadists, but many are just losers, misfits, adventure seekers and young men who’ve never held power, a job or a girl’s hand and joined ISIS to get all three.”

     When speaking about the third faction, he agreed that the last faction was completely serious about their ideology. But he still gives us basic information regarding the topic, this time, in a completely unbiased point of view. This makes the reader believe that he’s telling the complete truth, since he doesn’t seem to be hiding anything.

     The entire article is a message. It’s telling us that there is no reason to fear ISIS, that they’re just a group of untrained men wanting to fit in. The three factions that make up ISIS are objects of fear because we don’t know who or what they are. The article gives us that information to dial down on the fear that we already had.

Authentic

Positive Connotation

       Stating that something is real. I believe that something real is positive connotation, since fake is a negative antonym.