Islamic State.

This is coolbert:

Here with some miscellany regarding the war against the Islamic State [ISIL].

Robert Gates being interviewed by Charlie Rose. Bob Gates at one time American Secretary of Defense and prior to that Director of Central Intelligence.

1. "Robert Gates, former secretary of defense on ISIS and the Paris attacks."

Those key points of the interview being:

* The three recent attacks by ISIL more significant than what we might think. Paris, Beirut and the Sinai.

* Three to five years to defeat ISIL.

A year ago they were saying it was going to take three years to defeat ISIL. A year later it is still going to take a minimum of three years to defeat the Islamic State.

* Mosul a city of 1 million occupants and as occupied by ISIL going to be difficult to capture.

Sinjar City as just recently captured by the Kurdish Peshmerga originally had a population of 200,000 persons. The city now unoccupied and uninhabitable in the aftermath of the battle.

AND from the Washington Post [WAPO] this article regarding the financing of the Islamic State.

2. "How the Islamic State makes its money"

In particular:

"Below are 12 ways the Islamic State earns its revenue"

Primary sources of revenue to include but hardly limited to: Oil, kidnapping for ransom, taxation, sale of antiquities. Antiquities if not outright destroyed then sold on the international black market. Those antiquities according to the Salafist jahiliyya, an abomination and a product of a time of ignorance. But still valuable and appreciated as a source of income.

coolbert.