&gt; You didn&#x27;t study your history, comrade! Communist orthodoxy believed in a historical inevitability that overlapped very closely with a sort of man-made Divine Providence. The Nazis had their own set of religious and spiritual motivations, their racial destiny and so on.<p>&gt; They differed from Abrahamic religions in the sense that they expected &quot;victory&quot; in this world and in their time, as opposed to vague posthumous compensations and end-of-times prophecies; but they did believe in a &quot;greater power&quot; manifesting itself in their successful deeds.<p>Good point; I forgot about the historical-determinist side of Communism. I&#x27;m more familiar with the Nazis, who believed in an empty, Providence-less cosmos that was more or less Lovecraftian (and who accordingly made themselves a pretty convincing Cthulhu) -- see _Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning_ for the details.<p>&gt; That&#x27;s a false dichotomy. The problems in Syria won&#x27;t go away with bombs, and it was manifestly stupid for Hollande to join the party willy-nilly, especially after having experienced first-hand the inefficiency of his security apparatus. What is needed is a real agreement between the real power brokers (Turkey, Saudi, Russia, Iran) to cut off the crazies for good. We need hard diplomacy, not hard policies.<p>Surely both at once wouldn&#x27;t hurt. We need concerted ground action to defeat ISIS -- and in particular, we need Turkey to decide once and for all which side they&#x27;re on -- but I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s a bad idea to present a united front; I _do_ think that it&#x27;s a bad idea to imagine that making concessions will inspire fewer lone wolves and opportunists, rather than more.