Islamic State’s Caliphate Is Gone, But Not Its Violent Extremism
Islamic State’s Caliphate Is Gone, But Not Its Violent Extremism by Sune Engel Rasmussen – Wall Street Journal
The collapse of Islamic State’s caliphate has delivered a crushing blow to the extremist group, but the conditions that nourished that insurgency and others in war-shattered Syria and Iraq remain perilously in place.
Islamic State rose more than a decade ago from the ruins of Iraq by using public anger over poor governance, poverty and sectarian strife to draw recruits from marginalized communities. Iraq’s lawlessness offered fertile terrain for the insurgency to spread.
After five years of war against the group in Iraq and Syria, the caliphate is gone, now that U.S.-backed Syrian forces have captured the militants’ last desert holdout in eastern Syria. And yet seedbeds of extremism remain in both countries, even after the military campaigns aimed at uprooting Islamic State…