Processes.

This is coolbert:

From the Sheldon Adelson newsletter we have a description of those "primary processes" by which ISIL became a player on at least the regional [Middle East] geo-political stage.

Where did these guys come from and how? A non-entity until just several months ago, and now a factor of major importance NO ONE ever saw coming.

"ISIS: Spreading the Islamic dream" by Shaul Bartal.

"Two primary processes led to the rise of ISIS. The first was the oppression of the large Sunni minority in Iraq. The fall of Saddam Hussein, who was Sunni, and the installation of a democratic regime in Iraq essentially transferred power to the country's Shiites (60 percent of the population). The remnants of Saddam Hussein's defeated Iraqi army, who saw how the United States-led West was stealing their lands and giving the power of rule to the heretic Shiite faction, waited for the right time to strike. Their barbaric actions against the Shiites are also a type of revenge against those who stole their rule with the help of American protection."

"The second process is the Syrian civil war, which began in 2011 and ushered al-Qaida into that arena. Until February 2014, ISIS was part of an al-Qaida alliance of organizations fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad. The collapse of this alliance was the result of the horrific acts attributed to ISIS. The falling out with al-Qaida was not of an ideological nature, it was merely over tactics. Following its disengagement from al-Qaida, ISIS began to thrive. As of today, ISIS has an army of around 50,000 fighters in Syria and another 30,000 in Iraq"

Islamic fighters rallying to the cause and inspired by the teachings of Al Qaeda operating in Iraq at least as early as 2006, suppressed and fundamentally destroyed at that time by the "surge" as it was called at the time.

NOW resurrected and having returned with a vengeance. ISIL "troop" strength around 80,000? Again, a territory about half the size of the United States east of the Mississippi river under ISIL control.

That population of Iraq about 40 % Sunni Muslim but a significant amount of that portion Kurdish and not Arab. ISIL comprised of Arabic speaking Iraqi AND ALSO large numbers of foreigners.

coolbert.