The Barbarian Hordes

"An illiterate nomad from an obscure tribe in Mongolia, Genghis and his heirs conquered from Korea and China to central Europe and down to the Middle East. This massive empire -- the largest the world has ever seen -- was built on the uncompromising axiom of 'surrender or die'. Genghis left in ruins many of the most beautiful and culturally significant cities of his time. He orchestrated what can be considered the largest campaign of mass rape in world history He he also made surprisingly effective use of communications technology and other innovations to further his grim ends. And throughout it all, Genghis Khan remained a mystifying, unknowable presence to his hapless foes."
Peter Shawn Taylor, Waterloo, Ontario, Maclean's editor-at-large

"The Mongols were all but invincible on the open battlefield. They regarded the women of their enemies to be one of the spoils of war. One of the perks of being an ordinary soldier in Genghis's army was free access to conquered women."
[It is permissible to have sexual intercourse with the female captive: Islamic State]
The general response [to the Mongol hordes' capability of laying waste to the great cities of Asia and Europe] from the Pope as well as the French and German kings was complete bewilderment."
"Islamic State obviously claims to be motivated by Islam itself, whereas the Mongols were remarkably tolerant of all religions."
"At least with the Mongols it is possible to have a grudging admiration for their technical achievements, efficiency and strategic brilliance. Islamic State, on the other hand, seems to represent a pure, mindless barbarism without any redemption."
Frank McLynn, author: Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy

AP Photo/Raqqa Media Center, File      ISIL fighters parade in Raqqa, Syria.

Anything the Mongols could do, the Islamic State terrorists strive to outdo. Ten men forced to kneel before explosives blow them to shredded pieces of flesh, sinew and blood scattered on the hot desert wind. But the drama! so suitable for recording on slick videos to be distributed on social media for the admiration of their devoted followers ... four executioners galloping on horseback from a nearby hilltop to close in on the ten awaiting their death.

The staging of atrocities. The casual, inventive dispensing of human life. The Mongols, after all, were renowned for their horseback riding skills, their long-range accuracy with bow and arrow; Islamic State has simply substituted here and there; instead of bow and arrow, explosives are used, but bows and arrows shouldn't be entirely discounted for their sinister effect and perhaps in a video coming to a social media site near you, one will be featured adequately gruesome in its affect to be effective.

The Mongols projected a menacing aura of invincibility, and doesn't that resemble the dread and trembling fear that thought of approaching Islamic State terrorists engender within those who know they have been targeted for extermination? The women and children to be taken as slaves to be sold on the black market in those Islamic countries where slavery remains a legacy of the past, with the women handed from one owner to another, a hot commodity serving the interests of Islamist entitlements.

"They came, they sapped, they burnt, they slew, they plundered and they departed" was an observation produced by an historian in ancient Genoa, witnessing the fierce barbarity of Mongol attacks. One of Genghis' descendants took Russian noblemen prisoner and dispatched them handily, putting them under a wooden platform that crushed them to death while the Mongol men enjoyed a feast on the platform itself; dual-purpose and extremely effective.

Genghis Khan and his armies made good use of gunpowder, new in his era, and available to his marauders through their occupation and destructive paroxysms in China. Islamic State has proven proficient in utilizing captured weapons as well; transforming their looted American-made Humvees into suicide vehicles, slapping armour onto their sides to make them impregnable to explosives, and enabling their drivers to smash into barricades that would stop less robust suicide vehicles, in the process instilling terror in the minds and hearts of those who timidly attempt to stop their advance.

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has become a strange hybrid, a chimeric beast of many parts, none of them the least bit useful for any measure but to destroy, to loot, to commit to mass murder, to mass rape, to scattering terrified civilians and soldiers alike from their places of traditional refuge, seeking haven anywhere where the jihadist terrorists have not advanced.  

The Associated Press files     ISIS fighters marching in Raqqa, Syria