Wow, I didn't expect to find such shameless propaganda on HN. Every single sentence is factually wrong and insulting to readers' intelligence here.
If it's not obvious to someone: just read some actual interviews with radical muslims, purported reasoning by Bin Laden etc. - their reasons are always political, the US is targeted specifically because of all the death and destruction it has brought to the Middle East. Japanese "aid workers and journalists" (actually: a military contractor and a journalist) were targeted because Japan donated $100 mil. to the fight against IS (as said in the videos: http://www.newsnation.in/article/67223-is-threatens-kill-jap...), the ransom asked was $100 mil. for each hostage.
Don't believe the crappy propaganda: look for facts and then ask yourselves why the US supporters need these lies.
It's actually a mixture of both. Some extremists(particularly ISIS) firmly believe they are in they end times and are carrying out what they think scripture dictates, others are involved for the reasons you stated.
So is the US, apparently, if you're to believe the story about Bush's motivations.
> In the prelude to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush told Jacques Chirac that Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East: "This confrontation is willed by God," he told the French leader, "who wants us to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins."
> You don't believe ISIS would kill as many innocents as possible? It is practically their mission statement.
It's pointless to argue about statements containing words with highly subjective and arbitrary meanings like "innocents". Were the employees of the TV station the US bombed (with good precision and information!) in Serbia "innocent"? Of what crime were they guilty if not? The US apparently thought they weren't innocent. Who are we to claim the people brutally murdered by the IS are - to the IS - "innocent"?
The IS kills Japanese citizens because their government is "guilty". The US kills women and children because their high-tech drones aren't good enough and their information seems to be bad. Or so they've been saying for years, while still consciously deciding to use these weapons to said effect. While both are morally wrong, the latter is also disingenuous and not worthy of a civilized nation. It's the consequence of trying both to enforce the "right of the strongest" and to attempt to claim a moral high ground.
If it's not obvious to someone: just read some actual interviews with radical muslims, purported reasoning by Bin Laden etc. - their reasons are always political, the US is targeted specifically because of all the death and destruction it has brought to the Middle East. Japanese "aid workers and journalists" (actually: a military contractor and a journalist) were targeted because Japan donated $100 mil. to the fight against IS (as said in the videos: http://www.newsnation.in/article/67223-is-threatens-kill-jap...), the ransom asked was $100 mil. for each hostage.
Don't believe the crappy propaganda: look for facts and then ask yourselves why the US supporters need these lies.