A History of the Ascent of ISIS

Rise of ISIS The Rise of ISIS is an extremely controversial topic in today’s media, as the terrorist organization consistently claims they are responsible for many acts of terror on foreign soil. For example; ISIS claimed to be responsible for the horrific Pulse Nightclub Shooting in Orlando. The reason I chose the topic of the Rise of ISIS is because of how frequently the media covers the topic of ISIS which intrigued me. ISIS’s come to power obviously did not appear out of thin air, something must of sparked it.

Well something did spark it, and it started in December of 2011 when President Barack Obama declared that “all the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory”. This allowed the country of Iraq to be self dependant and more importantly self governing, keep in mind most people at this time were optimistic about this and were justified as we had “less war”, and soldiers coming home to their families.

The Rise of ISIS could of been completely averted if the United States kept troops in Iraq. The United States government is seen as a global superpower, many are intimidated by us due to our large military size and spending. This is why Iraq had less conflict while the United States was supporting the country with military, funding, and government. The number of terrorist attacks in the end of 2006 (3 years after we invaded Iraq) were at an all time high at 6,608, the following year it was 6,210, in 2008 there were 3,555 attacks, in 2009 there were 2,458 attacks (according to statista.

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com). In three years we can see a dramatic decrease in terrorist attacks due to the persistence and perseverance of the United States Military.

This gradual decrease of terrorist attacks would of eventually gotten small enough to the point where our military would be able to contain the threat and exterminate it. When we pulled out of Iraq in 2011 there was a dramatic drop of terrorist attacks in 2012 (1,271 to be exact), many people use this as a positive argument for leaving Iraq. Although if you look at the statistics for years following 2012 there was a dramatic increase in terrorist attacks, in 2013 there were 2,501 terrorist attacks in Iraq eradicating three years of progress. This was because in 2011 and 2012 when we first pulled out of Iraq the government of Iraq was able to support its country for a short term until they no longer could resulting in a spike in terrorist attacks. This was because they did not have a well established nation to support them in their fight against terror, so things went astray.

When President Obama withdrew the U.S troops from Iraq, that was when the corruption of the Iraqi government began, according to a PBS interview with Hoshyar Zebari he stated that “the prime minister got a phone call of a possible terrorist attack from his vice president’s guards”, seeking guidance the Prime Minister asked Obama what he should do and according to Hoshyar; Obama basically said “it’s your decision”. With the Vice President of Iraq and his Cabinet being put to the death penalty (by the president of Iraq) for treason, this lead to political unrest. The Prime Minister basically got full support for all his decisions from Obama and went power hungry.

When all this was occuring the people’s needs were not being met and many of them were getting tired of it and decided to do something about it. These people decided to try to overthrow the government and implement an entire new way of government called Sharia Law which is an extreme version of Islam, this group called themselves the Islamic State, which after territory expansions was changed to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS for short. Many people were forced to join by gunpoint and many joined because ISIS was doing something for them, while the Iraqi government was not. This series of events ultimately led to the Rise of ISIS which could of completely been averted if this situation was handled correctly.

The United States should of stayed in Iraq and further supported them until we were more sure that they were fully capable of taking care of themselves. Staying in Iraq may cost many resources and many soldier lives, but it is justified due to the fact that it eliminates a major terror threat to many nations including ours. The product of our withdrawal did not end the “War On Terror” it only sparked a new one with a different terrorist group, the entire Rise of Isis could have been averted if we stayed in Iraq.

Citations:

1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/202738/number-of-terrorist-attacks-in-iraq/
2. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/rise-of-isis/transcript/
3. https://www.cato.org/blog/was-rise-isis-inevitable?utm content=buffer57a59&utm medium=social&utmsource=twitter.com&utmcampaign=buff