My brother asked me a question this morning. I thought maybe you might be curious too.
- IS: Islamic State
- ISIL: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Levant - Eastern Mediterranean made up of Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria, and a part of southern Turkey.)
- ISIS: Islamic State in Iraq and Syria
First things first. All of those are the same thing. Whether it be IS, ISIL or ISIS...it's the same group. Cool? Cool.
For the purposes of this post...I'm going to say ISIS because that's what I refer to them as when I talk about them.
Now...where did they come from? Remember the big, bad al-Qaeda? Well...same people. Kinda. What was left of them joined up with these folks and other Sunni insurgent groups. They started wrecking havoc on all sorts of stuff and went too far and then hit a backlash from Muslims. They laid low-key for a minute and then came back with a vengeance. To ensure that the Muslims who were against them learned to not question them...they became horrifically violent and started off taking over small pockets of areas by rolling in, doing some horrific stuff to the stronger residents of the area and getting everyone to tow the line out of fear. Because of how dirty they got down...the actual organization of al-Qaeda backed up off them earlier this year and was like...um...we good over here. Yall doing too much. Yes...you read that correctly. al-Qaeda was like...um...no. That's too far. They broke all ties with them.
We can't play with yall no mo'.
Let that sink in.
ISIS proclaimed their group as a caliphate which means that their leader is a successor of Muhammad and that they have power over and therefore should control all Muslims. Well...obviously all Muslims do NOT agree.
Now...there is some controversy surrounding how ISIS got started because the people in the Middle East who don't want to have anything to do with them say that ISIS was started right here in the United States. Iran says they have proof that we created the group. Iran says when we realized we were losing big time in Iraq, we created them so Iran didn't take advantage of the weak Iraqi government. They haven't released said proof yet but hey...we all know we've given our big cousin from the other neighborhood a $20 and a stick to handle some playground ish before. That's how things get handled if the law and the people in power seem to be helpless in the situation. Well...we're going to handle it our way.
I mean...everybody knows that we funded the Mujahedeen in Afghanistan during the Reagan administration. Well, they became "uncontrollable" and turned into al-Qaeda using our weapons and weapons we paid for. We also supplied weapons to the Iraqi army and guess who took that? Yup...ISIS. They balling outta control swinging M16's around riding on our tanks and whatnot terrorizing people.
So, this problem didn't just start in February. This is an ongoing threat that keeps morphing in size, power and leadership. President Obama didn't create it but I'm sure he feels something has to be done because ISIS is getting bigger, badder and more deadly.
How do they get their money? Black market oil dealings. They steal oil from refineries after they seize the refinery and sell the oil to anybody with money. And they are undercutting everyone and still getting paid big time. Then? They pay their people a salary. YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! YOU GET A CAR! And, if the person gets killed or captured? Their family still gets paid their salary. Now that's one heck of a deadly union-pension plan. They pay their rent, bonuses for performance. All of that.
They also seized a chemical weapons plant in Iraq that has folks feeling some kinda way and is why the UN is like...hey...we need to handle this swiftly. And they're right.
ISIS needs to be stopped but I'm confused as to how they are going to be stopped with the current plan. I guess we just wait and see. The biggest fear to me is that many members of ISIS have United States passports. This means they do not have to apply for a Visa to get permission to come here. All they have to do is buy a ticket and get on a plane. Imma need them to be identified and not allowed back in the country and...I hope they are identifying those here who are members of ISIS too and deal with them. How should they be dealt with you ask? I don't know...and I'm happy I'm not in charge of figuring that out.
Okay...just wanted to clear up that all those group names are the same and that they didn't just crop up out of nowhere.
Um...if you're new to my writing, I write like I speak so my apologies in advance. LOL!
