Today's Adolph Hitler

As the self-styled Islamic State of Iraq and Syria pushes its offensive further south through Kurdish Iraq, it makes clearer its fundamental nature. It is not a religious movement, nor even a political movement fueled by religious values. Instead, it is a totalitarian movement reminiscent more of Adolph Hitler than Osama bin Laden. Its leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi is an armed thug with very little religious intent. His goal is total control over a population, and he is willing to use fabricated Islamic law to get what he wants. 

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi: more Hitler than bin Laden
from Wikipedia

As Scott Stewart wrote for the website Stratfor, the Islamic State has managed to build itself into a formidable fighting organization, but it has forsaken any practical efforts to govern or gain popular support.

Stewart writes that 

So far, the Islamic State has been able to claim its battlefield successes as proof of Allah's blessing. However, it has not yet received the global recognition and acceptance it hoped its declaration of a caliphate would produce. The number of jihadist groups swearing allegiance to the Islamic State has remained quite limited to date.

Zarqawi rapes and enslaves women, executes Shi'ites and Yazidis, destroys infrastructure and rejects any suggestion that its actions might be destructive. Zarqawi is a bully in the largest sense, just as Hitler was, using his willingness to be audaciously atrocious as his favorite tool. Fear is his most effective weapon, and he preys on the ignorance of his own people to convince them that he stands for something bigger than his own power.

President Obama's decision to bomb ISIS positions over the weekend was a start, and while I sympathize with his desire to exercise restraint, this really is the first Munich since 1938. This group needs to be stopped.