claimed just last year was being successfully pushed back by American intervention policy. Indeed, he claimed that the same model( cutting finances, recruitment tools, and the will to fight) that worked so“ well” in the degradation of the mujāhidīn there before their pledge of allegiance, would work just as well on the Islamic State.
Some things just don’ t work out as planned.
The energy behind this movement is fearsome. A single lion can kill an antelope but a pride that is hungry and cunning enough can, if they work closely together, take down an African elephant. As groups of mujāhidīn from around the world join forces, so the strength behind the Islamic State puts them in a position to devour much larger prey.
The West and its allies have, once again, been caught completely by surprise as they now find themselves fighting not just one enemy in Iraq and Shām, but now an international army of mujāhidīn numbering hundreds of thousands in different countries, whole continents apart. It’ s taken the coalition the best part of a year to put together a campaign against the Islamic State that is only now seeing a Shia mob supported by coalition aircraft make moves against Tikrit, but that’ s old news before it’ s even begun. Why focus on Tikrit when the Middle East, Africa, and Asia are now on fire?
And this movement shows no sign of abating. Indeed, this quickening, this coming together of Islamic groups sharing the same focus and purity of belief is only intensifying. And the more groups that join, the stronger the movement becomes.
As the groups evolve from splintered cells each waging their own wars to a single, unified body, it becomes a force of immense power, like a snowball that rolls down a mountain getting larger until you end up with an avalanche. The more outfits work together, so they can use each other’ s skills and strengths to fill in the gaps until there are very few weak points.
RAND crusader Jonah Blank
“ Say one group is very good at bomb making and the other group is very good at propaganda,” says Jonah Blank from the US“ think-tank” RAND Corporation.“ If you put the right bomb in the right place for the right propaganda effect, that can be far more important than either of these things on their own.”
“ This isn’ t just propaganda,” said Gary Bernsten, a former CIA intelligence officer on an interview with Fox News on 9 th March.“ ISIS has billions of dollars. They have a network of communications for reaching out to these groups. And it shows you how deadly and effective ISIS is. They are truly the most successful Sunni terrorist group in history because they’ ve carved out a space for a nation state, and these other groups recognize that. It shows Obama’ s statement that‘ this isn’ t Islam’ is a false narrative. ISIS has been brilliant at selling itself to the hundreds of millions of people out there looking for a message.”
And what of Obama of late? In all honesty, I haven’ t seen what the Nobel Peace prizewinner has been commenting on recently, but he can’ t be having much fun.“ This strategy of taking out terrorists
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