Posted on 05/18/2015 7:40:50 AM PDT by AnalogReigns
SANLIURFA, Turkey — When Abu Hamza, a former Syrian rebel, agreed to join the Islamic State, he did so assuming he would become a part of the group’s promised Islamist utopia, which has lured foreign jihadists from around the globe.
Instead, he found himself being supervised by an Iraqi emir and receiving orders from shadowy Iraqis...
All of the men, however, were former Iraqi officers who had served under Saddam Hussein...
His account, and those of others who have lived with or fought against the Islamic State over the past two years, underscore the pervasive role played by members of Iraq’s former Baathist army...
...almost all of the leaders of the Islamic State are former Iraqi officers, including the members of its shadowy military and security committees, and the majority of its emirs and princes, according to Iraqis, Syrians and analysts who study the group.
The raw cruelty of Hussein’s Baathist regime, the disbandment of the Iraqi army after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, the subsequent insurgency and the marginalization of Sunni Iraqis by the Shiite-dominated government all are intertwined with the Islamic State’s ascent, said Hassan Hassan, a Dubai-based analyst and co-author of the book “ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror.”
“A lot of people think of the Islamic State as a terrorist group, and it’s not useful,” Hassan said. “It is a terrorist group, but it is more than that. It is a homegrown Iraqi insurgency, and it is organic to Iraq.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Incompetency, in underestimating the Shiite/Sunni antagonism, starting with Bush, and culminating in a huge crescendo under Mr. 0 and Hillary...
All the rest of the Islamic that follow are useful idiots and the biggest idiots are those in the West who fall for the line that Islam is a religion.
This is interesting, Guardian’s take:
“Principally, Isis is the product of a genocide that continued unabated as the world stood back and watched. It is the illegitimate child born of pure hate and pure fear – the result of 200,000 murdered Syrians and of millions more displaced and divorced from their hopes and dreams. Isis’s rise is also a reminder of how Bashar al-Assad’s Machiavellian embrace of al-Qaida would come back to haunt him.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/22/syria-iraq-incubators-isis-jihad
So Ali Khedery says differently.
Hard to judge altogether but if Assad had not been blowing up scores of his own people, ISIS might not be so potent as well.
Dictatorships, as has been often noticed, are usually oligarchies of a wealthy elite with a kind of figurehead dictator. ISIS is the Iraqi Baathist oligarchy’s revenge....
It was not Bush. It was the idiot civilian he initially put in charge of Iraq as soon as the Hussein’s statue was toppled who created the wrath of the Iraqi Army when he alone refused to pay a lousy 50 bucks a man to the Iraqi Army men who all still had there AK’s. That dumb ass just said no and there were 500,000 or so pissed off troops with AK’s. I could not believe what I read.
Ha haaaaa! Karma sucks, don't it, Abu?
Can't be stated enough!
The fact that the leadership of ISIS is Iraqi Baathist—vs. Syrian Baathist in Syria, is amazing. It means far from a conflict of religious Muslims vs. (more) secular Arab nationalists...in Syria this is really just a raw power game between birds of a feather.
That Mr. Obama dithered and allowed ISIS to form—or really the Baathists to re-form (and surely our gov knows ISIS is Saddam’s old regime)...is even more inditing of his utter incompetence.
You meant to say that “...the biggest idiots are those in the West who fall for the line that Islam is [not] a religion...”?
Obama is the American progressive oligarchy's revenge on America and the world.
Bush was responsible for whomever he put in charge. The real blame for ISIS though, goes on 0. Just so he could please his domestic constituency—that he “got us out of Iraq,” he took a peaceful, controlled country and passively watched it turn into a blood bath.
Mr. 0’s hands are dripping red.
I mean after all, Saddam's officers are leaders of ISIS. ISIS was spawned by Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda was created by Osama bin Laden. Osama bin Laden ordered the attacks on 9/11.
I don’t think Liz necessarily speaks for the WaPo.
The truth of what she reported though, speaks for itself.
maybe so but Bush kicked their ass which is more than we can say about Obama.
Paul Bremer is the State Dept fool Bush put in charge who royally screwed things up in Iraq under Bush. With that said, as another FReeper recently pointed out to me, the buck stops with Bush on that one. And frankly, I am not sure there was any not screwing things up, short of having completely stomped out Islam there as a starting point.
Everything in the Islamic world is connected. Even the passivity of “moderate” Muslims.
So, the “hidden hand” is Saddam’s. He’s giving orders from the grave.
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