The evidence is piling up.  Certain Muslims join ISIS or identify with it from afar because it stands for something, for pure Islam, for the Islam preached by Muhammad.  The teen from Afghanistan who hit people with an ax in a German train is the latest example.  ISIS appears to be winning, and the only hope to ignite the great conflagration against the "Romans" in northern Iraq, so Allah will grant the jihadists the final victory.

A theme that threads its way through the Quran is winners and losers.  This verse is relevant to the regional conflict that may spill over into Israel.

5.21. "O my people! Enter the holy land (Palestine) which Allah has assigned to you, and turn not back (in flight) for then you will be returned as losers."

Please believe that ISIS leaders know that verse (see it in four orthodox Sunni translations at quranbrowswer.com).  Israel is their intermediate goal, while the fall of the West is their bigger one.

It is now clear that we must take the fight to ISIS even more forcefully than the current commander-in-chief is doing.  When we turn ISIS into losers by crushing them with a coalition – the French are sure to join – then the false caliphate will appear weak, and it will lose its appeal.  In the simple minds of jihadists, winners attract; losers repel.

If elected, Hillary would keep the status quo, which accomplishes nothing.  Maybe Trump will follow a more aggressive strategy.  After all, he likes to call people "losers."

James Arlandson's website is Live as Free People, where he has posted Islamic Martyrdom: The Economy of Death in the Quran, A Brief History of War in Earliest Islam, the Truth about Islamic Jihad and Imperialism: A Timeline, and Jihad and Qital in the Quran, Traditions and Classical Law.