That anyone would have thought them even possibly responsive to outreach in the first place is a good indication of how disastrously the Obama Administration and the State Department establishment have wrongly evaluated the Islamic State. They have no idea what they’re dealing with, and cling to the old Cold War paradigms that have no place in the present global situation. They think they can bribe these people over to their side or control them with a mixture of carrots and sticks. They will continue to think this no matter how impervious the Islamic State remains to such appeals.
There needs to be a massive change in the political culture in Washington, and a thorough sweeping-out of these outmoded ways of thinking that are leading the U.S. again and again into disastrous foreign policy errors. But such change is not on the horizon.
“Video purportedly shows beheading of U.S. hostage Steven J. Sotloff,” Chicago Tribune, September 2, 2014:
…After Islamic State’s beheading of journalist James Foley, President Barack Obama’s administration is making little headway in efforts to secure the release of other Americans held by the insurgent group in Syria, officials said.
Washington has contacted about two dozen countries for help in freeing the three, but no foreign government appears to have influence over or even significant contact with IS, which has declared an Islamic caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria.
“What we’ve found is that ISIS isn’t responsive” to outreach, said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity and using an alternate acronym for the group.
Another administration official said Washington was working with other Western countries whose citizens are being held hostage, and with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and others in the region thought by the United States to possibly have influence with the groups Al-Nusrah and IS….