Despite the fact that the war on terror was officially launched by the White House a little more than a decade ago, the main trends in the American foreign policy regarding Middle East have changed significantly in these dozen-something years a couple of times. The issue the United States of America are dealing with in the case of ISIS is something very different, both in nature and in scale. Compared to the devotion of the Bush administration to fight every single suspected organization and individual in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks, the Obama administration was and still is far more reserved about American presence and American warfare in the Middle East. After a decade of active involvement and establishment of questionable …show more content…
Given the abovementioned topic, it seems reasonable to look into the roots of the ISIS history in order to incrementally approach the answer to the question of “how is this threat different from the others in the region” like the Taliban or al-Qaeda.
The first thing to know about ISIS is that it originated as an organization not very much like the one we currently know. It emerged in the early 2000’s as a terrorist group known as Jam’at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad headed by the terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This group is considered to have its roots in the Iraqi war and is thought to have resistance to the Western occupiers as their primary principle and goal of operation. This is particularly where we find the first difference between other terroristic groups and ISIS as well as the difference between threats represented by both. Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other organizations, having been created earlier, tried to instill into the population of territories controlled by them values that diverged very much from the Western ones and while they fought the West in more ideological than literal sense, ISIS is quite another pair of shoes. ISIS began as an organization whose goal is not only to deny aggressively western values, but also to force out the western forces from the Middle East. And that the difference – clash in the worldview in the first case and fighting for dominance over certain territory
ISIS stands for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It is referred as a terrorist group by the United States, whereas ISIS considers themselves to be an army instead. ISIS has been responsible for many gruesome attacks all over the world one of them being the execution of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh. They originated from Al-Qaeda in Iraq but they had big ambitions by kicking America out and setting up an Islamic state. To this date hold their land there unlike other groups like Al-Qaeda and Taliban. They have a huge support from people as their count being over 30,000 soldiers and followers. They are heavily armed, can fund themselves, have an organized infrastructure, and can cause a lot of damage. Later in 2006, their brutality lost them the support of Iraqi Sunnis who partnered with US forces to help push them out of the country. And for this incident, America takes a lot of credit for this and call it the Surge in which they helped Sunnis rise up against Al-Qaeda in Iraq’s rule. This led to Al-Qaeda in Iraq being defeated but not destroyed by only being driven out of the land they used to control and later they began rebuilding themselves by being involved in the fighting in Syria as they were trying to throw the Shiite Assad regime. Due to their brutal and severe tactics, Al-Qaeda disavowed Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Later in February 2014, the group Al-Qaeda in Iraq
On September 11, 2001 , the United States was attacked under the influence of Osama Bin Laden. Ever since these attacks took place the United States increased their security measures on who and what enters into the country to protect its grounds. The actions of Bin Laden came from a terrorist group named Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda was a terrorist group whose founder was Bin Laden. Al Qaeda led to evolution of Isis which is an insurgency and not a terrorist group. The evolution of Isis came from a book named Defense of Muslim Lands. Within this book the were the common beliefs and obligations to becoming a jihad. The key beliefs consisted of “ A Jihad is a personal obligation, Muslims have been humiliated by the hands of impure Regimes and western
ISIS or commonly known as “ISIL” poses a huge threat to the United States today. Currently as the National Interest says “ISIS currently controls thousands of square miles of ungoverned territory”(Gottlieb 2017).
Recently a military group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has been causing controversy between the group and the United States. However, what many might not know is that ISIS has been around for more than a decade. When the United States sent troops in to overthrow Hussein’s government in 2003, it started a tension that would have never been expected. ISIS has conquered many places and gained much land. ISIS is believed to have contributors from the 9/11 attack (infobaselearning.com) and they have been known to go to the extreme to enforce their law. From the beheading of Christians, to the cruel treatment of women, the punishment is very brutal.
Since the United States’ conception, controlling interests in other countries has been of utmost importance. For decades, the United States’ foreign policy has been centered around protecting its assets abroad, regardless of the manner in which it is done, and in many cases, a blind eye has been turned toward the consequences of involvement in foreign countries. Over the course of the 1900s, the United States has committed numerous human rights violations in Latin American countries in order to advance their political, economic, and cultural agenda.
Al-Qaeda is the parent to ISIS. Al-Qaeda translates to “The Fundament”. It is a multi-national radical group founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden and other militants who fought for Afghanistan against the Soviet Union. It has been labeled as a terrorist group by the United Nations Security Council and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and quite a few other countries. The Sunni- Islamic group was based in Sudan for the early part of the 1990, they moved to Afghanistan somewhere around 1996 and went under the name of Taliban. The group merged with Jihad’s and later declared a holy war against the United States. The United States troops all but eliminated the group and killed its leaders while they were in Afghanistan, but with withdrawal of the troops in 2011, have regrouped and made a comeback. https://www.britannica.com/topic/al-Qaeda
Who is ISIS? They are a Sunni terrorist group that originates from the also Sunni terrorist group, al Qaeda, but specifically the Iraq faction, al Qaeda in Iraq. They are specifically a Sunni version of Islam called Salafism, which means Pious forefathers. The forefathers are the prophet himself and the earliest adherents. The individuals who are part of this group look to these forefathers as examples in behavior and everything else. They desire to follow their actions and lifestyles exactly. The original leader of this group was killed and a new leader rose to power, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, who was an experienced fighter. They lost their power in the Sunni Awakening in 2007, and then found a chance to regain power in Syria in 2011. By
Who is ISIS? They are a Sunni terrorist group that originates from the also Sunni terrorist group, Al Qaeda, but specifically the Iraq faction, Al Qaeda in Iraq. They are specifically a Sunni version of Islam called Salafism, which means Pious forefathers (Ferran, Momtaz, 2015). The forefathers are the prophet himself and the earliest followers. The individuals who are part of this group look to these forefathers as examples in behavior and everything else. They desire to follow their actions and lifestyles exactly. The original leader of this group was killed and a new leader rose to power, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi, who was an experienced fighter. They lost their power in the Sunni Awakening in 2007, and then found a chance to regain power
Isis is a terrorist organization made up of Shi’ite Muslims yearning to create an independent Islamic state in the Middle East. These terrorists go to any extent of violence in hopes of connecting the holy lands throughout Middle Eastern countries. Isis members are fighting for religious purposes hoping to secure land where the Muslim religion would dominate. Isis brings danger throughout the world with its political history, the military tactics it employs, and its attraction to foreign members.
Turkey has recently allowed the basing of American fighter jets in their country which permits the U.S. to decrease the flying time for its aircraft engaged in striking ISIS targets across the border. The citizens and politicians in the U.S. are weary from years of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan and will not fully support the deployment of U.S. forces in a ground combat role against ISIS. Presently, U.S. forces on the ground are training anti-ISIS forces but the strict vetting process has kept the eligible pool of individuals quite low. The airstrikes have kept ISIS contained but the world still bears witness to the daily atrocities that are committed throughout their area of influence. ISIS will also continue their online recruitment and propaganda efforts in the hopes of finding and influencing individuals willing to carry out attacks within their respective countries in the name of
Foreign Policies are influenced and created by two branches, executive and legislative. The U.S. Constitution put this delegation of power into place. Foreign Policy determines how the U.S. will network with other countries and has been a large factor in our history since implemented. The process of the policy is not always the simplest; it has caused tensions and angst between Congress and the President through the years. A discrepancy between the two branches was and is not uncommon, yet the relationship between the two is indefinite. Each division has responsibilities and its own appointed power over the making of policies and bills. There are checks and balances to the process, where the President can veto a proposal by legislation
The beginnings of ISIS,a Sunni jihadist group,can be traced back to 1999, when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian jihadist, started the group . In 2010, after ISIS’s second leader was assassinated, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi,a former scholar of Islamic studies and a US war prisoner back in 2004,took over and got the group back on track. He replenished their partially-killed-off leadership with dozens of Saddam’s old Ba’athist military personnel, who brought key experience to the group. Then in 2011, when the Syrian Civil War broke out, ISIS joined in as a rebel force,which helped to train and battle-harden the group. ISIS’s behavior in Syria was so brutal and severe that they even started creeping out the other groups, including al-Qaeda, who finally had a tantrum in early 2014 and cut all ties with ISIS. The ISIS, like all terrorist organizations, arose out of systems of discontent that made extremist ideology appealing. The extremist ideology of ISIS is an aberration of Islam marked by radical apocalyptic thought. The ISIS’s position is antithetical to Shia Islam, which believes that just as a prophet is appointed by God alone, only God has the prerogative to appoint the successor to his prophet (the caliphate).
Chapter 16 focuses on American foreign policy and what it entails. Foreign policy of the United States determines how we interact with other nations and also the standards or guidelines for these interactions. Foreign policy is designed to protect America and ensure our safety both domestically and globally. There has been an ongoing struggle involving American foreign policy in the Middle East and specifically the war on terrorism. Conflict in the Middle East has been at the top of the American Foreign policy agenda for the past 50 years.
The first and most popular group that ISIS bears resemblance to is Al-Qaeda (for the purpose of this thesis,
ISIS is a terrorist organization and perhaps the most successful one. They have seized huge chunks of Syria and Iraq. They are an anti-western militant group devoted to establishing an independent Muslim Islamic state but no country recognizes them as a state. People have been shot and killed in the name of ISIS because they have a different political or religious viewpoint. ISIS believes religion gives them the right to attack others with differing political views. ISIS is an example of how certain beliefs can start a war. Wars are started for many reasons but they often start because of a group’s strongly held belief surrounding religion, race or political views. Wars or conflicts hurt and kill millions of people. But certain groups feel