ISIS's strength came from its power base in the Sunni tribes of Iraq, the chaos in Syria was opportune for it as it gave them a safe base for operations in Syria and a great recruiting tool but they were/are an Iraqi group
Our invasion of Iraq gave militant extremists the perfect recruiting vehicle for disaffected Muslims, the open war that has followed has given them the training grounds in the same way the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan fostered the rise of jihadist groups then.
|