A factor behind the Paris attacks (edit: and now Lebanese attacks) might be ISIS attempting to control the world’s media narrative.

See, if reports are to believed they’ve just had to give up the entire Shingal region after sustained attack from the Peshmerga (plus bombing support).

ISIS haven’t had a strategic victory in some time and their whole bullshit machine is struggling to maintain itself. But a frontline victory isn’t gonna happen for them:  ISIS are excellent opportunists, selecting and attacking weak targets, but there’s no more weak military opponents left in Iraq and Syria. How better to divert attention from this truth than directing large scale terrorist acts in the West and Near East?

History may record Paris as an act of desperation and slight of hand.