Interesting “outside expert” overview, and feels very real. Comment section includes people in the region saying so.

BTW: ISIS — formerly “ISI,” (until Syria (the “S”) was added) — hmmm . . . so perhaps the cabal did not name it for an old goddess and try to invert her meaning? Or is this a case of layered realities (illusions) . . .

Arresting, the notion of ISIS “forces” likened to something “between a liquid and a gas,” flowing up and down the Euphrates from Iraq to Syria, wherever a vacuum opens.

“All ISIS had to do was tilt to the east, along the axis of the Euphrates River. This river defines the territory of the Sunni insurgency. It starts in Syria, passes through ar-Raqqah, ISIS’s HQ in Syria, and crosses into Iraq, passing through ISIS strongholds like Ramadi and Fallujah before veering south toward the Gulf. The Euphrates defines the insurgency, not because ISIS fighters actually need it to travel but because, before the 20th century, settlement was only possible along its banks, so the Sunni Arabs built their towns along the river.”

The article, which is long on fractious and confusing local politics, does not address just how these scruffy ISIS folks managed to garner all those gleaming white pickups. Just who is funding and supplying them? Or does it even matter in a world increasingly weary of war.

Via ranprieur.

The War Nerd: Here’s everything you need to know about “too extreme for Al Qaeda” ISIS