The lure of the concept of the caliphate continues to be ignored and dismissed. The mainstream media is too busy declaring victory:
A CNN headline asked in November 2014: “Has ISIS peaked? Terror group suffers setbacks in Iraq.”
The Atlantic announced in January 2015: “ISIS Is Losing Its Greatest Weapon: Momentum: Evidence suggests that the Islamic State’s power has been declining for months.”
CNN followed a few weeks later with “For ISIS, tough times as it seeks to regroup.”
The New York Times announced on February 4, 2015, that “ISIS Is Losing in Iraq.”
On April 15, Vox issued its own report: “ISIS is losing.”
“3,000 More Foreign Jihadists Join ISIS,” by Nancy A. Youssef, The Daily Beast, April 30, 2015 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
The U.S.-led coalition may have taken back a city or two. But ISIS is still attracting thousands of jihadists, undercutting a key component of America’s war plans.
Foreign fighters from around the globe continue to pour into Iraq and Syria to join up with the self-proclaimed Islamic State—despite ISIS’s loss of two major cities, four U.S. and military officials told The Daily Beast.
In fact, there is some evidence that the number of fighters from Europe has increased in the last six months, one U.S. official said, from a total of 5,000 fighters six months ago to roughly 8,000 now. In other words, there’s been a 60 percent increase in these recruits in just half a year.
Either way, two military officials said, there is no evidence of any change in the foreign fighter flow since ISIS last major battlefield setback, in Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit.
“The recruitment channels continue unabated,” the U.S. official explained.
The continued flow punctures a key component of the U.S.-led coalition’s strategy: that military losses, coupled with coalition air superiority, could shift the momentum against ISIS’ favor.
ISIS’s vision of a caliphate could not exist without landmass, the U.S. military has repeatedly said. And ISIS has depended on new cities to plunder their banks of money and their citizens with taxes.
“The narrative depends on them being able to hold the territory,” one defense official explained.
Earlier this month, the U.S. military distributed a map boasting ISIS’s territorial losses in Iraq, saying the U.S.-led air campaign and Iraqi ground forces had reclaimed 25 percent of area once under ISIS control.
But the problem is that while ISIS needs landmasses, some areas are more valuable than others, the military official said. And the two major cities that ISIS was not able to keep or win over—the Syrian city of Kobani and Tikrit—were not that strategically important to ISIS, the U.S. officials said.
“We have exaggerated and overhyped these tactical advancements in areas north of Baghdad as well as Kobani,” an adviser to the U.S. government effort in Iraq told The Daily Beast.
The capital of its caliphate in Iraq is that country’s second-largest city, Mosul, and that remains under ISIS control. ISIS also holds sway over much of Iraq’s restive Anbar province and controls the central Iraqi city of Baiji, as Iraqi forces fight to hold onto the refinery there. In Syria, there is little evidence of any major losses of territory there—although competing jihadist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra have been taking towns from the Syrian government. The city of Raqqa remains under ISIS control.
“They still hold the core territory,” said Christopher Harmer, a senior naval analyst with the Middle East Security Project for the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for the Study of War. “That ISIS heartland still seems pretty secure.”
Moreover, because Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s hold on the country there appears increasingly fragile, more fighters are traveling to Syria in hopes of tipping the battle to their advantage. And on social media, the group has successfully spun the losses as wins.
ISIS hoped to win over the northern Syrian city of Kobani. But that was aspirational, not key to any access points to other cities or financing, U.S. military officials conceded. After months of fighting between ISIS fighters and Kurdish peshmerga forces, bolstered by an aggressive U.S.-led air campaign, ISIS forces began withdrawing in February.
The U.S.-led coalition has conducted nearly daily strikes on Kobani since then, in a push to ensure ISIS does not return and help peshmerga forces expand the area they control around the city.
ISIS was entrenched in the central Iraqi city of Tikrit for roughly eight months leading up to the fight there. Tikrit, while symbolically important, also exposed the massive amount of military force needed to take it out of ISIS’s grip. The Iraqi security forces leaned on Shiite-dominated militias and Iranian advisers and weapons in the early weeks in the battle for Tikrit. And when that floundered, the U.S.-led coalition began an air bombardment campaign; the city fell a week later. To win the city, the Shiite militias sustained heavy losses, and the Iraqi military outsourced its military plans.
“Tactically, ISIS lost Tikrit. Strategically, it wasn’t that big of a loss. They bled the Shiite militia. And they established the standard. It took air superiority and all these Iranians military advisers,” Harmer said.
Many hoped the fall of Tikrit would shift the momentum away from ISIS. Days after the city fell, Iraqi and U.S. officials debated which ISIS-controlled city to strike next; the Iraqi government’s push to tackle Anbar next prevailed. But so far, there is no evidence of a major Anbar campaign but rather sporadic fight for control of the province’s capital, Ramadi. According to one U.S. official, the Anbar campaign has not begun, in part, because of infighting within the Iraqi government.
On the ground in places like Ramadi, local officials said the majority of those killed in battle on the ISIS side are Iraqi, suggesting that foreign fighters are not on the front lines but rather in a support role….
Jovial Joe says
Sounds to me like the Sunni Iraqis simply not wanting to be ruled over by the Shia ‘hypocrites’. While ISIS have that natural support among the local population I can’t see them ever being dislodged; not, at least, by anything short of a genocide of Iraqi Sunnis and I can’t see that happening.
thomas pellow says
Obama succumbs to Islamic Republic of Iran over nuclear weapons’ development, and over taking of U.S ship this week.
And now, Obama does not recognise the growing Islamofascist enemy threat from Islamic State.
Spot On says
B.O. is dominant with us but not with Islam. This tells me that he wants Islam to dominate us.
I hope these 3000 young people enjoy their new world. Every time I have a hunch that Islam is similar to various ancient evil cultures of the past , I find that my hunch turns out to be true. See this link.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/03/isis-jihadists-are-demons-from-hell/
Other ancient cultures celebrated male dominance and would gang rape other men to show their dominance. Often ancient rulers would rape their male subordinates to show their dominance. The men of Sodom (Genisis19) were such people. They would gang rape outsiders to put them in their place. This is what they sought to do to the strangers lodging in Lot’s home. These 3000 Jihadists are both outsiders and potential suicide bombers.
A Muslim Jihadist suicide bomber submitted to Allah and got something he didn’t expect. See this link for story.
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/afghanistan-suicide-bomb-attempt-taliban-sexual-abuse-757272
Islam has opened a Pandora’s box of ancient evil. Christianity helped tame that world, with Islam fighting Christians at every turn. Islam has now been set upon a modern unprepared secular world. There is no way to know what is ahead.
Godwin says
B.O.’s father was a Shia muslim. So he is always on the side of Shia Iran. Shame on him for not able to get back the US flagged ship detained by Iran recently. USA is being bullied by a small country. All Americans should be feeling shameful..
vickie says
I am have to be finding more people understanding Islam!!
http://markhumphrys.com/root.cause.html
http://rantsand.blogspot.com/2006/09/observations-on-arabs.html
From the comment section – “As you well know the Arabs/Islamists react in a predictable fashion to overwhelming force; they fold like a house of cards. This should teach even the densest among us how to react to terrorist atrocities. We need to hit back HARD! If the terrorists who hit us in the future operate in broad daylight in Gaza City, we need to hit the city with ten fuel air explosives (aka “daisy cutters”).
They respect strength, not our cherished sense of cultural tolerence and fairness.”
Spot On says
Vickie, I’m with you on the daisy cutters and have been saying that for years.
duh_swami says
‘Setbacks’ is a tricky word because in every war, both sides have them…The US had some setbacks in every war it ever fought.
In the end, you don’t have to win every battle as long as you win the war…
Papa Whiskey says
Those with long memories will recall that this same “we’ve got ’em on the run” pap was fed to us during the Vietnam War and LBJ’s reign. Then came Tet 1968. Blooey!
oldwhiteguy says
the western world continues to blindly follow the lead of the dhimmis. their level of ignorance regarding islam and it’s ultimate goals is astounding.
Watcher_87 says
Any chance of spelling it “calipHATE”….
shabeer_hassan says
@Spot On says
Suicide prohibited: reward of suicide is hell
4: 29. O you who believe! Eat not up your property among yourselves unjustly except it be a trade amongst you, by mutual consent. And do not kill yourselves (nor kill one another). Surely, Allah is Most Merciful to you.
4: 30. And whoever commits that through aggression and injustice, We shall cast him into the Fire, and that is easy for Allah.
39: 53. Say: “O ‘Ibâdî (My slaves) who have transgressed against themselves (by committing evil deeds and sins)! Despair not of the Mercy of Allâh, verily Allâh forgives all sins. Truly, He is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Bukhari :: Book 2 :: Volume 23 :: Hadith 445
Narrated Thabit bin Ad-Dahhak:
The Prophet (p.b.u.h) said, “Whoever intentionally swears falsely by a religion other than Islam, then he is what he has said, (e.g. if he says, ‘If such thing is not true then I am a Jew,’ he is really a Jew). And whoever commits suicide with piece of iron will be punished with the same piece of iron in the Hell Fire.” Narrated Jundab the Prophet said, “A man was inflicted with wounds and he committed suicide, and so Allah said: My slave has caused death on himself hurriedly, so I forbid Paradise for him.”
Godwin says
U believe in that book that says the sun sets in a pool of muddy water. I would love to see your answer to this.
Godwin says
Allah and Muhammad Explain Where the Sun Sets (Quran 18:83-86; Sunan Abu Dawud 3991) in youtube.
Godwin says
Shabeer Hassan, u are so stupid that u are beyond redemption.
RG says
@Godwin. Hey now, seems like there’s an overwhelming sound of crickets responding to your last post to Mr. Shabby pertaining to the FLAT EARTH-SUNSET THINGY! Hmmm… Remember, mo-ham-head also recommends drinking camel urine for quite a number of common maladies! Hmmm… Maybe that’s the problem with our ‘friend’, Mr. Shabby. I hear that stuff can really mess up your reasoning ability. Mmmm… ain’t islamm just delicious???
P.S. On second thought, it goes w/o saying that muzzies all have an ample supply of STUPID PILLS at their availability! Hmmm… DONTCHA JUST WANNA BE A MUZZIE????
brenrod says
a lot of tripe plaguing the civilized world
Truth Seeker says
Will it not wise step to block the Entry of these Militants back to their home country? The respective Governments have to Take Actions accordingly
brenrod says
Has everyone lost their mind? What could be better than Jihadis in the west leaving and going to fight and die in the foreign deserts of the ME and africa from whence they came. a dream come true. In fact, it would make sense that their was a covert false flag operation to recruit these nutters and ship them out as quickly as possible. Why would anyone want to prevent them from leaving except as a red herring? but duh???? Make sure they die over their and never let them back in. Sending them to go kill each other in the desert sounds ideal and should be a point of cooperation between many nations who dont even agree on other matters.