I’ve actually written quite a bit on ISIS to date, so it may be prudent for those that are unfamiliar with WarCouncil.org to visit some of these other short essays in order to provide some broader context: “ISIS Won and Four Fundamental Factors that Explain Why” “Destroying Value: ISIS, The Anaconda, and War On The…
Image courtesy of Tremr. Make no mistake, this is not an assessment one offers with a smile. But it’s a fact: ISIS (or ISIL) has achieved victory in Northern Iraq and Eastern Syria and does meet minimum requirements for statehood. Just spend a few miserable minutes reading the most recent situation updates or listen to the Foreign…
Image courtesy of Wikipedia. This past week, while reading and thinking about the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), two figures jumped out at me. The first comes from an interview with the head of (Iraqi) Kurdish intelligence, who said he believes that ISIS “generates something equivalent to $6 million a day by…
Image courtesy of the Washington Post. ISIS is getting high marks – both for the territory that it’s seized (roughly the size of Indiana) – and for it’s use of the media. Consider this comment from a feature story in the New York Times: