Global Affairs

Photo source            The Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS or ISIL has unofficially been ousted from many strongholds in Iraq and Syria. The terrorist organization, a once off branch of Al Qaeda, was able to swiftly rise to power in 2014. Three years prior to this, the United States officially backed out of the War effort in Iraq. That same year, President Assad of Syria propelled a gruesome civil war in his country that is just as ubiquitous now as it was in 2011. Terrorist organizations rise to power and thrive in unstable regions of the world. In doing so, groups like ISIS are able to take advantage and easily overwhelm underfunded and exhausted federal forces. In 2013, ISIS was able to capitalize on the instability in Syria and capture the city of Raqqa from rebel forces. Raqqa, the Islamic States’ Syrian capital was liberated from ISIS control in October of 2017 by counterterrorism forces. In 2014, the Islamic State began its campaign to e...

Source: https://www.pinterest.com /pin/139541288431965767/ On November 6 th , Iraq’s highest federal court ruled that the referendum to declare independence from Iraq by the Kurdish people was unconstitutional. Two months prior to this decision, the Kurdish people successfully voted and passed a declaration that created the new nation in northern Iraq of Kurdistan. The movement to separate from Iraq had been decades in the making but had been temporarily ceased due to the rise of the Islamic State and the fighting that took place in the region. Kurdish militants, or YPG (Kurdish People’s Protection Unit), were extremely successful in the fight against the Islamic State. Without the Kurds, ISIL would be nowhere close to being ousted from Iraq and Syria and on a downward spiral. When ISIL first began to conquer large swaths of territory in 2014, the U.S. did not want to send more ground troops and engage in yet another war. So, the United States turned to the YPG to fight ...