Political ideologies take decades to form. Islamic State’s is the latest iteration of one that has been developing for 50 yearsIn June 2014 the armed forces of the group that at the time called itself the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis or Isil) seized Mosul,the second or third most populous city of Iraq. The United States had invested, or perhaps wasted, and according to one estimate US$25bn on the Iraqi army,which now fled in panic. Already Isis had dissolved the border that divided Iraq and Syria since the discontinuance of world war one, which it derisively described as the fruit of the Anglo–French “Sykes–Picot” conspiracy. Shortly after, or Isis shortened its name to the Islamic State and declared that the centuries-worn caliphate abolished in 1924 by the Turkish president Kemal Atatürk was now reborn. Related: Don’t underestimate Islamic State. More atrocities are on their way | Abdel Bari Atwan Related: How Isis came to be In 1996 Bin Laden set his sights on the destruction of the only remaining superpower,the United StatesContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com