( CNN ) -- When most people look at ISIS , they see the incarnation of evil . Among its many horrific acts , the Islamic militant group beheaded American journalist James Foley and posted the video this week in retaliation for U.S. airstrikes in Iraq . The Pope typically protests violence , but he implied that he supports the use of military force to combat ISIS . Even al Qaeda says ISIS is too violent . Across the political spectrum , public officials and pundits have characterized them as `` savages , '' a `` cancer '' and the `` face of evil . '' Is ISIS evil ? The problem with that question is that the answer is as easy as it is useless . Yes , ISIS is evil and must be stopped . Saying so over and over again could very well make it harder to stop them . There is only one good reason to denounce a group as evil -- because you plan to injure them , and calling them evil makes it psychologically easier to do so . `` Evil '' is the most powerful word we have to prepare ourselves to kill other people comfortably . The flip side is that `` evil '' is also a word that stops us from thinking . There is no point in trying to understand evil because it is , in the most typical phrasing , `` inhuman , '' `` senseless '' or `` beyond comprehension . '' It is a fool 's quest to analyze the local realities and strategic imperatives of unthinking savages . There is something almost offensive about trying to understand such evil . National Review 's Jonah Goldberg tried to shame those who are trying to think seriously about ISIS . In a recent tweet , he mocked the attempt to understand ISIS in its social and political context , suggesting that we should focus instead on one fact : `` They 're evil . They do obviously evil things for evil ends . '' The fact is , there are few things more dangerous now than allowing ourselves to think that way . To resist ISIS and , perhaps more importantly , the larger social forces it represents , the U.S. will need more than a collective psychological readiness to injure , and more than bombs . The Wall Street Journal editorialized that this evil ideology will only be stopped when `` enough of its fanatics have been killed . '' But if we 've learned anything as a nation since our `` shock and awe '' campaign in Iraq , it is this : While invasions and bombing can be effective in the short term , they are not durable solutions to terror-based violence . Even if U.S. military force could effectively destroy ISIS , there will be similar groups waiting in the wings . If we are to have any hope of preventing the spread of extremist ideologies , we must do more than bomb the believers . We must understand them . We must be willing to continue thinking . How is ISIS able to achieve the support it needs ? What drives people into its ranks ? What social pressures and needs , what political and regional vacuums , make it possible for a group like this to thrive ? We can choose to answer these questions in two ways . We can say they are evil people doing evil things for evil ends . Or we can do the hard work of understanding the context that made them , so that we can create a context that unmakes them . We can analyze the ways its violent tactics are effective for its purposes given the local power dynamics , so that we can also better understand its weak spots . And we can ask how it is that normal men -- men who were not born evil -- get turned into monsters , so that we can work to change the structures that produce terrorists over the long term instead of locking ourselves into an endlessly repeated , short-term policy of `` killing fanatics '' until they are gone . Trying to understand something is n't the same as trying to justify or excuse it . That 's a basic mistake , and a costly one . As Jane Harman , president of the Woodrow International Center for Scholars , recently wrote : `` We ca n't counter radical narratives if we do n't understand the motives of the radicalized . '' Nonetheless , trying to understand evil is an offense . It is an offense to everything we hold dear , because understanding -- that is , true and effective understanding -- must bring us close to the other , must help us see the world through their eyes . That is a painful , offensive process , and that is exactly what we must do .
James Dawes : It is the strongest word we have to tell ourselves to kill others . Jones : But the flip side is that it 's also a word that stops us from thinking . He says even if we can destroy ourselves , there will be other groups waiting in the wings . Dawes : If we are to stop spread of disease , we must understand the people .