The Pros And Cons Of ISIS

After the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003, a number of Sunni extremist groups, among them al Qaeda in Iraq, emerged to fight U.S. forces as well as Shiite civilians in an attempt to start a civil war. After a temporary defeat in 2006, al Qaeda in Iraq began to re-establish themselves within Iraqi prisons. When the 2011 revolt against the Assad regime in Syria, the group took advantage of the ensuing chaos and established a base of operation in northeast Syria. They also renamed themselves ISIS, or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. As the central government of Syria weakened and US combat forces withdrew from the region, ISIS took advantage and began to capture more territory. In June 2014, with mass desertions in the Iraqi army, ISIS was able to capture Mosul and several other Iraqi towns, and declared the territory under its control a caliphate. A caliphate is an Islamic state that operates under Sharia law lead by a caliph, a political and religious successor to Muhammad. In the last year, ISIS has gradually lost control of this territory, and their control is declining. But at its peak, ISIS was clearly more organized and powerful than a terrorist organization, but most states were unwilling to recognize it as a sovereign state. Using several definitions of …show more content…
ISIS maintains a well structured government able to financially support itself, mainly through oil. As ISIS took control of Syria, it also took control over its key oil assets, and gained control of about 60 percent of Syria’s oil production capacity. It then smuggles the oil out at below market price to Jordan and Turkey, making anywhere between $1 and $3 million per day. They also loot banks of the towns they capture, selling antiquities on the black market. Because of this, ISIS clearly meets the criteria for effective