“This is why Muslim armies grew instead of shrank as you’d expect them to (from battle losses). ISIS will cut through the existing Muslim polities like a hot knife through butter if it isn’t stopped, gaining adherents along the way. Why would it make sense to let ISIS gather the majority of the world’s oil under its banner?”
I was reading where last year ISIS took over some town with 100 fighters. They soon had 500 to 800 in their group that they had enlisted from the town. The article had mentioned the new guys getting paid (no work in the area), but I imagine many were forced into it as well.
And yes, it is about oil, not Sunni vs. Shia or whatever. But it is also about terrorism. Once ISIS controls all of that oil they will be able to fund even more than they already do.
So we team up with Iran against ISIS .. Iran who is working on a nuclear weapon to destroy Israel and the US, which if they get access to same oil you are worried about ISIS getting , will use that oil to fund that little project.
I’m not seeing a clear strategy here.
If we don’t want either one to get the oil then why don’t we just make Iraq the 51st State and be done with it? (Never mind the precedent that sets).