THE STATE OF THE ISLAMIC STATE
February 26, 2015
Today, finally, in an interview
today on “Democracy Now!,” Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The
(London) Independent, reporting from the Kurdish capital, Erbil, gives us a credible
description of life inside the Islamic State http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/26/who_is_bankrolling_the_islamic_state).
Cockburn points out that the IS now controls an area larger than Britain. They are funded primarily from among the
Arabian Gulf states. The vast majority of the armed forces of the IS are
inductees of the IS draft/conscription.
Recruits from the US who aren’t fluent in Arabic are ineligible for
combat training and service. Groups
fighting the IS in Syria hate each other more than they hate the IS. Iraqi forces, mostly irregular Shiite
militias, have made no substantial territorial gains against the IS so
far. Human rights organizations are
preparing for a massive wave of refugees should the US begin to bombard Mosul. In the unlikely event that IS forces were
driven out of Mosul, the occupiers would be irregular forces—independent Shiite
militias, who Mosul residents fear at least as much as they fear IS occupiers.
The implication is clear: trying
to degrade and destroy the IS is a fool’s errand, and the threat of IS
recruitment in the US is a non-issue. Love
and peace, hal
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