Conflicted Loyalties in Jordan

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham is addicted, absolutely obsessed with making headlines. And it succeeds with regularity in making those big-type screaming headlines with little effort on their part beyond outraging the world community by its commitment to the most grisly videos that deranged human minds can conjure up, aided by their psychopathic pleasure in inflicting maximum pain on victims while simultaneously ending their lives.

When Jordan exulted that its warplanes bombed ISIS emplacements, in the process destroying the lives of an estimated 60 terrorists in a series of revenge-bombings after the death by immolation of Jordanian air force Lt. Muath al-Kaseasbeh, 26, taken hostage after his plane went down over Raqqa, Islamic State responded by gloating that none of its fighters were killed, but among those killed was a 26-year-old American humanitarian aid worker.

Islamic State video showing Jordanian pilot's brutal execution.

It will never be known of a certainty whether a coalition bombing mission was responsible for helping ISIS remove an irritant in the form of a Western captive, or whether in fact the terrorists cunningly used the occasion to slaughter her in some unimaginably savage way to entertain themselves watching a human being writhing in agony as Lt. al-Kaseasbeh certainly must have, trapped in his cage with fire consuming his mortal remains after his spirit was broken by ISIS.

Kayla Jean Mueller's parents prefer to believe she is still alive, as though having been assured by ISIS that they would not harm the young woman was a promise that they could rely upon in their desperation for her safety and possible return. She has been rewarded for her mission to aid the less unfortunates of the world and to commit herself to bring a small amount of brightness into the lives of children whose lives have been upended by war and poverty.

Kayla Mueller is shown after speaking to a group in Prescott, Ariz in May, 2013

Rewarded in the very same manner that Islamic State congratulated American and British aid workers and journalists for their integrity and humanity bringing compassion and aid to those plagued by misery brought them by the Islamist horde. Needless to say, bombing is usually carried out in as careful a manner as possible in the hopes of avoiding civilian casualties, so Raqqa is not directly hit in recognition that the city is full of people held virtual prisoner by Islamic State.

Even so, it is impossible to hold out hope that aerial bombing will hit only terrorists and not victimize innocent civilians as well. War is never anything but brutal and horrible in its toll on any civilian population. Islamic State declared a universal war on all opponents of its grotesque ideology of conquest in the creation of a Caliphate whose purpose it is to dominate all cultures, religions, and societies in surrender to Islam.

The truly alarming outcome of these opposing versions of a dread ideology of pathological hatred, mass slaughter and domination is that anger at the Jordanian pilot's ghoulish death on the part of his tribe is divided in its loyalties. When the video of his death was first released, some members of his tribe burned down the building of the local ministry in their hometown of Karak.

A screengrab from an ISIS video reporting to show Jordanian Pilot Muath al-Kasasba prior to being burned alive. (via Storyful)

And it is among the tribe, loyalist Sunnis, that many feel Islamic State is not a terrorist organization. Support for ISIS is growing in Jordan. A recent poll found up to ten percent of the population of Jordan, some 500,000 people over the age of 15, favoured the Islamic State.