The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) saw itself disavowed by al-Qaeda last year amid rising tensions with Jabhat al-Nusra, but the loss of the al-Qaeda imprimatur not only doesn’t appear to have hurt ISIS, but is hurting al-Qaeda.
That’s because ISIS is now in the process of forming what it is calling a “caliphate,” and young would-be jihadists see them as the more effective and more upwardly mobile movement than al-Qaeda, with its stogy leadership and no real territory of its own.
Al-Qaeda remains a force to be reckoned with globally, with significant affiliates like AQAP and AQIM, but ISIS has leap-frogged them both for recruits and for Western officials’ scare mongering.
The State Department is now openly saying that ISIS is “worse” than al-Qaeda, a bigger threat with a “full-blown army,” and with ISIS in control of a nation spanning much of Iraq and Syria, it’s a trend that’s only getting worse.
ISIS officials can be caught saying, "We couldn´t have done it without America and Israel, to which we will be eternally grateful, even though we will have to kick their sorry **** out of the ME".
One has to pause to think what kind of "Jihadist", or any kind of self-respecting man, particularly a Moslem, with any shred of a sense of honor would crucify old men and rape and butcher women and small children, or want to, all the while ignoring what is being done to their presumed co-religionists in Palestine. So, who are all these "recruits" and where are they coming from ? ( We already know whose paying them. )
There was no ISIS before America invaded Iraq, perhaps the greatest geopolitical mistake ever made.