Bastille Day Look Back

“Perhaps the government’s bombast consoled the populace; at the very least, it surely flattered the human desire for purpose, suggesting that the 86 dead were not the victims of a crime without discernible meaning but, rather, martyrs in a struggle for good. Yet there is danger in this rhetoric, too. To endorse the notion of civilizational clash is to accept the premise upon which the Islamic State is fighting, legitimating the absurd claim that the group poses an existential threat to France and the West. France’s bluster is, in this sense, a victory for the Islamic State.” GQ’s Scott Sayare provides an interesting look at the Untold Story of The Bastille Day Attacker.

+ “He hoped to find a credible way to transform Yusuf and his friends back into the ordinary young men they’d once been. This could spare the youths years behind bars—an act of compassion that would undermine the Islamic State narrative that the West despises its Muslim citizens.” From Wired’s Brendan I. Koerner: Can you turn a terrorist back into a citizen?