ISIS and U.S. Army Actions

Hello and welcome to the fifth post of JBerrios Career. Last year we began hearing about a terrorist group that is the responsible of a lot of cruel and hard activities in the Middle East, specifically in Iraq and Syria. If you are a soldier, maybe you has a lot knowledge about that, if you aren’t a soldier or don’t know about this group, this information can help you. In this blog I will try give you a simple summary about how this organization maintains their activities.

     

 What is ISIS? The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is a terrorist group with high notoriety in this moment in Middle East that has more of the 60% of the territory of these two nations. Their ideal began in 1999 when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi founded a terrorist group called Tawhid wal-Jihad that was linked with Al Qaeda, but they disagreed with the tactic of fight with “far enemy” and preferred fight against rulers in the Islamic world. In 2006 al-Zarqawi was killed in an airstrike, but his idea, violent acts and tactics are following by ISIS.    

   

In March 2011, protests began in Syria against the government of Bashar al-Assad. In the following months, violence between demonstrators and security forces led to a gradual militarization of the conflict. In August Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIS leader, began sending Syrian and Iraqi ISI members experienced in guerilla warfare across the border into Syria in order to establish an organization inside the country. Led by a Syrian Abu Muhammad al-Jawlani, this group began to recruit fighters and establish cells throughout the country. Now they have a strong organization with a chain of command that they divide by councils that are responsible for sale of oil, internal communications, decisions to execute and etc. Also they have two deputies to oversee in Iraq and Syria and seven man cabinet where each member report directly to him and advise him on operational policy across the territory. 

In recent months some terrorist groups have joined ISIS for example: The New York Time reported that last month, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, one of the most violent militant groups in Egypt, pledged allegiance to ISIS. Al-Mujahidin in the Arabian Peninsula, Libya and Yemen also joined this November. Six Pakistani Taliban leaders reportedly swore allegiance to Isis in an audio message and Nusra Front make a deal and stop the fighting between them and now fight for the same ideal. This brings together the two most effective Sunni militant groups fighting in Syria.

What is the purpose of ISIS? Unlike other organizations such as Al Qaeda, ISIS has other purpose and goals. They want delete all the existing government inside Iraq and Syria and create their own government in the land already acquired. The problem of their acts is the violent form that they use. Besides invade different areas of Syria and Iraq, ISIS killed women, children and innocent people some to spread fear and others because they do not share the same religion or idea. Also they beheaded two journalists, Steven Sotloff and James Foley.   

 How they receive money? In the beginning, the ISIS militant economy depended on wealthy Persian Gulf donors to get money, people that believe and support their idea with money. During the fighting they acquired important areas and now ISIS has taken and controls up to 11 oil fields in both countries. The organization sells oil through smuggling networks in Jordan, Turkey and northern Iraq controlled by Kurds.  They have become a self-supplied financial giant, where winning more than $ 3 million per day from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion.

Some month ago, President Barack Obama announced that the US will lead a "broad coalition" to "downgrade" and "destroy" the ISIS terrorist group operating in the border between Iraq and Syria. They only use an airstrikes over ISIS point of interest, but don’t put troops in ground. Today for the strong situation against ISIS, the U.S. Army will send 1,250 troops to Iraq for help with training the Iraqi Army. These troops are from the 10^th Mountain Division and they will replace soldiers from 3^rd BCT, 82^nd Airborne Division. The mission is, training, advising and assisting the Iraqi troops who are engaged in the fight against the Islamic State.

The participation of the U.S. soldiers in Iraq is very important. Last week CNN report that ISIS destroyed museums that contained hundreds of figures from ancient Mesopotamia, which represented the beginning of civilization. They come with all, they don’t matter anything existing and we need eliminate this actions with the U.S troops there. I hope that this summary help you to understand much better the ISIS history and their cruel goals and why is necessary the U.S. Army. For these troops that will go and the troops that will come back, thank you and good luck warriors!!!!

 

1,250 Fort Drum-based soldiers to deploy to Iraq. (March 30, 2015). By Andrew Tilghman and Michelle Tan, Army Times. April 1, 2015, complied from: http://www.armytimes.com/story/military/pentagon/2015/03/30/fort-drum-soldiers-iraq-deployment/70694944/   

Iraq P.M.: ISIS ‘barbarians’ will not destroy our history. (February 28, 2015). By Joshua Berlinger, CNN. March 31, 2015, complied from: http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/28/middleeast/isis-museum-antiquities-vandalism/index.html

Obama ISIS Speech on 9/10/14: The Strategy Against ISIS| The New York Times. (Sep. 10, 2015) Youtube. April 1,2015, complied from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk5Sps0z27A