Islamic State Of Sleep, By Thomas L. Freshman

Kamren Simpson
Freshman Composition 1
Garrett
17 November 2014
Islamic State of Chaos In Thomas L. Friedman's article, “ISIS, Boko Haram and Batman” (Oct. 2014), Friedman offers his opinion on the best way of restoring order to the countries afflicted by growing terrorist groups. Friedman compares these terrorist groups, i.e. ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and Boko Haram, to gangs of immature men that want nothing more than to remove the rules put in place by their respective governments. After all, these groups gain many of their members by offering a sense of belonging to boys who don't feel that they belong anywhere. From this, Friedman alludes to The Dark Night by quoting a conversation between Bruce Wayne and his butler, Alfred Pennyworth, implying that those terrorist groups “just want to watch the world burn.” He goes further by comparing them to a disease, for which the best treatment is to isolate and steadily treat the worst symptoms until the situation is mostly stabilized. He gives examples of countries in the region where each level of the disease is already treated and suggests that other countries should follow those examples to move from a state of chaos to tranquility. Friedman credits Francis Fukuyama, political scientist and author of “Political Order and Political Decay,” by including his opinion on the threat posed by ISIS. Fukuyama's argument is basically that the main goal should be to install a government strong enough to suppress this organization first, because ISIS only seems powerful due to the lack of any other real governing body in the region. Both Friedman and Fukuyama offer solutions to the problem that is terrorist aggression, and Freidman employs many rhetorical deviceses to encourage the reader to accept his opinion on the matter. He effectively uses the pop-culture reference of The Dark Knight to appeal to the readers’ interests, while also appealing to ethos through the usage of other reliable sources and pathos by comparing the region to an afflicted person in need of assistance. The central rhetorical device in Friedman’s article is that of the allusion to the conversation between Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth. He uses this pop-culture reference as a tool to give the reader a more familiar instance of issues in an unfamiliar country on the other side of the Earth. Friedman’s choice of using The Dark Knight as a source to pull dialogue from also makes the reader attribute the chaos associated with Gotham City to the disorder in the Middle East, and it ultimately makes the reader more concerned for the well-being of the region, because the desire to bring order to an area plagued by chaos is one of the ideals of Batman himself. And who doesn’t want to be like Batman? Because he used such a persuasive source, Friedman gains some sway over the reader and allows his point to be more influential. The method with which he introduces and responds to this dialogue also helps the reader trust him as a credible author. He does not introduce the dialogue by stating why he thinks it is important; instead, he introduces the dialogue by showing that it was brought to his attention by another credible source on the matter, in this case, “Orit Perlov, an Israeli expert on Arab social networks” (para. 2). The inclusion of the other source shows the reader that he/she doesn’t have to just believe in Friedman’s idea of a good example. Instead the reader can see that multiple people had the same opinion on the dialogue’s importance. Using this conversation, Friedman implies that ISIS and Boko Haram are as much of a threat to peace as the villains of modern superhero movies. The dialogue between the two is on the topic of taking down an organized group of criminals with an unpredictable leader, the Joker. When Alfred recalls a similar situation from his own past when he was hunting down a jewel thief, he describes both of their enemies as men who “can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or

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