By
Joseph
Klein
Islamic
State of Iraq and Syria ("ISIS," also known variously as "Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant" or simply the "Islamic State") is
metastasizing throughout northern and western Iraq and swaths of Syria. It won't
stop there. Jordan, Lebanon, Israel and other parts of the Middle East are
within its sights. Ultimately, its pathological leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
warned, ISIS is after the United States. "Our last message is to the
Americans. Soon we will be in direct confrontation, and the sons of Islam have
prepared for such a day," he said last January. More recently, an ISIS
spokesperson declared "we will raise the flag of Allah in the White
House."
President
Obama, after months of dithering, finally authorized air strikes against ISIS,
which are helping to slow down their advance against the Kurds in northern Iraq
and to provide space for urgent humanitarian relief to besieged minority groups
under threat of genocide by ISIS jihadists. However, as welcome as this is, the
president still views ISIS as a local Iraqi problem to be dealt with by
instituting a more inclusive centralized government in Baghdad rather than seeing
ISIS as part of a much larger global ideological threat. [more...]
