The Rise Of ISIS

There are very many reasons why ISIS has been able to spread across the Middle East and why their control and reign is hard to stop. ISIS, though not said very often, is tactically very smart in their choice of where and when to attack. The group has strong leadership including some of the top members of the party that was overthrown in the takedown of the Hussein dictatorship. Over time this group had been oppressed and been outcast by society due to the loss of their party. Another problem is that it is hard to pinpoint the true value of how many fighters are truly in ISIS. American intelligence, as stated earlier, severely underestimated the number of fighters the militant group had under their control. Per Patrick Cockburn, the United States …show more content…
He says ISIS is at least at 200,000 men fighting for the Islamic State. He also added that ISIS now controls an area that is about one third of Iraq and about one third of Syria which adds up to about the size of Great Britain (Cockburn 2014). This size difference is one of the reasons why the United States originally believed that the countries within the Middle East could handle the militant group alone. This assumption has allowed the group to grow greatly in such a quick period. It also helps that ISIS is a religious extremist group in the area that is dominated by their religion. Since Sunni Islam is the major religion in the Syria and in Iraq, newly acquired territory provides ISIS with many new recruits to fight for their religion. This is what has led to the difference in the United States estimation and the overestimation in Iraq’s ability to handle the situation. Nonetheless it took us a long time to learn that the Islamic state reportedly pays there fighters about 400 a month which is more than some armies in the Middle …show more content…
It was a hot topic issue during the United States presidential election and it has put President Obama on the hot seat over much of his presidency. ISIS is not just on the table for the United States, they are a problem for the whole world. Even with all eyes on ISIS it is hard for us to stop them because the United States, like many other countries, have pulled out of the area relying on Iraq and the countries surrounding ISIS to fight them with little help from others. In this time the group has grown and diversified. They have grown all over the globe and incite violence on almost every continent. President Obama has continually said we will not put troops on the ground in Syria throughout his presidency. With the upcoming change in the leader of our country there are many questions that need to be answered. In normal cases, most answers would already be known, but with Donald Trump we must wait and