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 is being led by multiple people who are extremely resistant to compromise and believe that they are following a prophecy. They have a divine prophecy that they will either be led to a great demise or a wonderful ending where they will come out on top. ISIS is vastly different than many other groups by the fact that they are led by a very strong willed leadership.
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
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
Since American troops left Iraq, ISIS “has waged an increasingly powerful terrorist-guerilla campaign against the Shi’ite population and the central Iraqi government” (“The Historical Roots and Stages in the Development of ISIS”). The withdrawal of the American forces from Iraq in 2011 created a security vacuum in the military, allowing ISIS to gather strength and rebuild its terrorist campaign against Iraqi government and the Shi’ite population. They wanted to create civil war between the Sunnis and the Shi’ites (two Islamic groups). By doing this, they could establish their own Islamic group into all of Iraq. ISIS then instituted many attacks (including suicide bombings) to apply pressure to these groups.
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
As Kelly Anderson’s Foreign Policy Analyst, the following memo will address three areas of the United States’ foreign policy. The U.S. has gone through may transition when it comes to its foreign policy. The United States has been an isolationist, neutralist, and internationalist country from the year it was founded to now. The executive branch and the president apply their power to influence and change the nation’s foreign policy. There are specific departments within the Executive Office of the President (EOP) created to assist the president in his or her process. Political context and historical events have occurred to prove why intervening with another country’s issues does not benefit the national interest and why isolationism is a better system for this country. Hopefully, the memo will accomplish informing what the foreign policy is, was, and should be.
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).
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
Any discussion of U.S. Middle East policy is integral to the national political discourse. A presidential or congressional candidate has to prove her/his foreign policy knowledge on the campaign trail, but unfortunately the electorate is generally not informed enough to critically assess a candidate’s understanding, which risks giving our leaders virtually unchecked power to make policy in our name. An important part of educating young citizens in a democracy is to teach them the tools they will need to understand their nation’s foreign policy, past and present.
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.
The first and most popular group that ISIS bears resemblance to is Al-Qaeda (for the purpose of this thesis,
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
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 rise of Isis is a big thing in the world we live in now. Every Country is at the risk of ISIS attacking them. There have been many attacks that ISIS has carried out, for example of what they have done is the 9/11 attack, this was a really sad day for the American people. The ISIS group hijacked 4 air planes and 2 got ramped into the twin towers kill many people, and one of the other planes crashed into the Pentagon and the 4th plane crashed in a field, 2,996 people died on the 11 of September. This was all from ISIS., another attack ISIS did was the Paris shooting, the 3 people who are members of ISIS ran into this ma magazine writer and open fire in this work place and killed 17 people, after they did their thing, they jumped into a car and drove off, the reason they did this was because the magazine writer made fun of their god. Over the many years that ISIS have been around they have done over hundred attacks. The points that I will be touching on is the background, chronology, how have we changed, Groups affected and different perspectives. ISIS is also known as ISIL. ISIL stands for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. ISIS operates around the world but most of the time ISIS operates in western Iran and also in eastern Syria. ISIS has a massive stretch of ground in both of those states. This makes it military the most effective is jihadi movement ever. While the specific size is unknown, we believe that ISIS has thousands and hundreds of fighters. ISIS comes from
President Obama has previously stated that, "...my administration has tried diplomacy and sanctions, warning, and negotiations - but chemical weapons were still used by the Assad regime." Even if the Assad regime would forfeit up its chemical weapons and join the Chemical Weapons Convention which outwardly condemns their use the Syrian crisis will still not be solved and the years of turmoil are bound to come with a much longer road ahead. Regarding any future military action, Obama has said “we cannot resolve someone else 's civil war through force, particularly after a decade of war in Iraq and Afghanistan." So the solution is to not engage in war tactics but by alleviating the people of the region.