I've looked into ISIS some and to be honest they're a culmination of all of the fighting that's taken place between Islam and the West (if you're also counting the former Soviet Union and then Russia as part of the '
West') in the past 100 years or so. Right after WWI.
It's like kind of an all-star team with every Sunni extremist group being represented. Mental defectives side by side with long term professional terrorists and hardened guerrillas that have in some cases survived fighting either the Soviets/Russians, the Americans/NATO and the Assad Regime or sometimes all three. Chechen rebels, former Bosnian militia, Syrian guerrillas, Iraqi insurgents and bomb makers, former Al Qaeda, Austrian and Australian teenagers duped into making the trip to Syria after becoming radicalized, former gangsters (and at least one former would-be rapper) from Detroit and London, Dutch welfare recipients, . . . You name it. Only difference is throw in some ancient slaughter with edged weapons as a throwback to a simpler time where conquerors chopped off their enemies head, stuck it on a stake and either took their enemies women to wife or sold them on the slave block for some quick money in a leather bag with drawstrings carried on the belt.
Ironic thing is that all the above is true, not exaggerating in an attempt to be funny.
Woman right before she's stoned to death for 'Adultery' when her husband discovered that she wasn't a virgin
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2801575/isis-releases-sickening-video-clip-showing-syrian-woman-stoned-death-group-men-including-father.html[map of what ISIS hopes to achieve in the near future redacted]
Jihadist type Muslims (which make up a large chunk of the Islamic world) won't be happy until the entire world prays five times a day by putting their forehead to the ground.
At any rate, back to ISIS. Look at how ISIS ended up referring themselves. As '
Islamic State' and as a Caliphate.
What is a Caliphate?
A caliphate is an Islamic state. It’s led by a caliph, who is a political and religious leader who is a successor (caliph) to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. His power and authority is absolute.
The militant group Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), has declared that it is restoring the '
Islamic Caliphate', renaming itself as simply the Islamic State (IS) and naming leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as '
Caliph'.
The original Caliphate was established in the year 632 in the Arabian peninsula, and the title of Caliph, or Khalif, was given to Abu Bakr as-Siddiq who became the first leader, after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The word '
Caliph' means successor, and designates the political leader of the Islamic community, or ummah. By using the language of Caliph and Caliphate, ISIS is attempting to establish itself as the leader of a worldwide Muslim movement and mobilize a broad coalition of support by erasing national boundaries.
For more on it here's an article in the New Republic about the political and religious implications of declaring "The Caliphate is established!”.
New Republic : What ISIS's Leader Really Wants - Abu Bakr al Baghdadi (*Click*)That's honestly why they have the influence that they do today, it's because of all the nations and people that they conquered in the past at the point of a sword.
At any rate to sum it all up I'm not saying that the US needs to get involved in Iraq full scale the same way we did before, not much in it for us. Just saying that since ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State or whatever those dipshits want to call themselves are the inheritors of an Islamic tradition that would like to force their way of life and religion on every living thing on the planet and that a fight is coming anyway whether we like it or not. So we might as well support the Kurds, the Israeli's and any other semi-moderates in the region that are okay with Westerners and let them do whatever fighting that needs to be done their way.
It's not like the Sunni's that subscribe to this Wahhabist version of Islam don't want to do the same thing to us (enslave and pimp out our women and stick our heads on a fence pike) . . . So fuck em.
It's not a question of the US being involved, we're already involved. Even if it wasn't a matter of Islamic radicals hating America due to it's political and monetary support of Israel since the mid-1940's they'd hate us due to our culture. We're kind of already in it due to a clash of cultures.