Lernaean ISIS

Abū Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead.

Those words echo across newsfeeds and Facebook posts, from the bbc to the maldonian times (I am aware that Maldonia is the kingdom from a disney movie but, I'm sure that if they did have a paper then this would still make the front page). The raid was carried out during the night, in a remote north west part of Syria. Eight US special forces helicopters were involved. The whole raid was monitored using video fees which were described by president Trump in a level of detail unheard of in cases like this.

The final encounter took place in a tunnel, in which the cameras couldn't see putting the details of the claims by the president into doubt. Along with three of his children that he took with him, Baghdadi is said to have been whimpering and screaming while being chased by an attack dog. In the final moments when he is was cornered he exploded the suicide vest that he had on killing himself, his children and injuring the dog. No US personnel are said to have died in this raid however, some IS defendants were killed. It has come as a great triumph for the US and the president Donald trump. It’s supposed to be a moment to rejoice because the ‘word is a safer place now’.

Not to be that person but, don't pop the champagne just yet. Just because the late Baghdadi will no longer ever again ‘harm another man, woman or child’ doesn’t mean that the plethora of devoted IS fighters and supporter still present across the globe won’t. This is not to cast a shadow upon this victory, but rather it's a clearer look at the true intentions and the realistic implications that this will have upon the future of ISIS and the safety of the world. Baghdadi was the leader of IS therefore, his death does come as a huge blow to the group. The countless that pledged to him, and only to him, no longer have any ties to the group. For the ones that had pledged themselves to the group, this comes as another defeat. It may seem to them another sign of ISIS weakening, or perhaps even raise few concerns about it's leadership however, that's as far as it will go.

The Lernaean Hydra having been appropriated by countless hollywood movies (of various budgets) and videogames, is originally a creature from Greek and Roman mythology. This creature has many distinguishing features such as blood so venomous that it breathed poison or it's reptile body but, it's most notorious has to be it's ability to regrow its heads. Everytime you chop one of, two more regrow. It will do good to compare ISIS to the Hydra, chopping it's head off is never the end. There are always two more heads ready to sprout. ISIS is much more than it's head or it's fighters on the ground, it's more akin to an idea, a state of the mind. As long as that state of mind exists, as long as there is someone spreading it further, it will continue to live on. It doesn't matter who does the spreading, it all eventually comes down to the person with the gun, their hand on the trigger. Or, the person with the suicide vest, about to blow up at a shopping center. Perhaps the person with their foot on the pedal, about to ram into a crowd. This person could be anybody.

This particular feature isn't limited to ISIS. We have seen this same thing happen time and time again, a good example would be the killing of Osama Bin Laden. The 'mastermind' behind nine eleven, the worst terrorist attack on US soil, and leader of terrorist group Al Qaeda was killed in Pakistan by US navy seals in 2011. However, that did not stop Al Qaeda from continuing, the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks are a clear example of that. His death fuelled fury from other jihadist groups and countless urges for retaliation attacks. This is not to say that it wasn't a significant win for the west or that it didn't achieve anything but rather that cutting the head of doesn't work. What's even more important is that Baghdadi differs from Bin Laden in key ways. He never became omnipresent with ISIS, neither was that ever his plan. The only times he appeared on camera was when he accepted his role as the 'calif' and once more recently. This significantly reduces the impact his death would have upon ISIS followers. It further reaffirms that Baghdadi wasn't ISIS, it is their beliefs, their methods and their goals that form the caliphate.

All of this must be kept in mind when we look towards the future of ISIS. Of course the group will be needing it's time to regroup, there will be internal conflicts as the voice of direction and unity has been cut off. There is a way to defeat the hydra, cauterise the wound with a flaming torch and no more heads will regrow. President Trump recently tweeted that the US has also managed to kill Baghdadi's number two and most likely succeder, 'Now he is also Dead!' he exclaimed. However, the last head of the Hyrdea is always immortal, it will always regrow. In the greek mythology hercules used a special sword given to him by Athena to cut it of. Even then while nothing regrowed, the head lay there screeching never truly dead so, Hercules buried it in the ground. Terrorism existed long before nine eleven but, that is when the powers started to see it as a threat. We can only hope that they don't believe the threat has been extinguished, not before we bury the final head into the ground.