Originally Posted by Rochard

I thought that ISIS was one of the groups that came into being because of the civil war in Syria. However, if I understand correctly (and please feel free to correct me) ISIS started in Iraq after the end of the war with Iraq. They worked hand in hand with al qaeda, but both got beat down pretty badly after the troop surge in 2007. ISIS used to be foreigners from outside of Iraq, but after 2009 it was dominated by Iraqis. In 2011 ISIS was heavily operating in Syria, and recruiting from there as well.

The major problem with ISIS is that this is a world wide group. There are a lot of calls for using military forces to fight ISIS, and while this will help it will only be a partial solution. This is something that is largely embedded within their culture, and that is something military force cannot change. We need to go all in and completely dominate the entire area, which is never going to happen.

This will not change until other, peaceful Muslim countries get dragged into this mix. Once terrorist attacks start happening in other Muslim countries there will be no serious attempt to change their society.

I fail to understand the logic of ISIS. Attacking western countries is pointless. Bringing down a plan full of Russian tourists will only dramatically increase military activity by Russia. Attacking France - same thing. These countries can bitch smack ISIS around and they cannot even see us coming.