ISIS timeline via Forces.net

via Forces

A concise timeline

• 2004 - IS emerges from a fraction of al-Qaeda in Iraq
• 2011 - Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi leads attacks in Iraq and Syria
• 2013 - Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) breaks from al-Qaeda
• May 2014 - IS carry out an attack at the Jewish Museum in Belgium
• Jun 2014 - IS seize Falluja, Raqqa and Mosul
• Sep 2014 - US military coalition and strikes against IS
• Jan 2015 - IS carry out an attack against French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo
• May 2015 - IS seize Palmyra
• Jun 2016 - Fallujah is taken back by Iraq.
• Aug 2016 - the Kurdish YPG takes back Manbij in Syria
• 2017 - attacks carried out in the UK (Manchester Arena bombing, Westminster attack, London Bridge attack)
• 2017 - IS suffers defeats and loses control of Mosul and Raqqa
• 2018 - IS continues to suffer losses and US say they will withdraw troops
• 2019 - US to leave 400 troops in Syria and say most territory has been regained
• 2019 - IS currently besieged in Baghouz, their last enclave

Story here.

Read the entire article.  While I agree with the "big points" there are a few details they point out that I totally disagree with.

The point to the first beheading as a "reason" why they grew.  I disagree.  I feel comfortable in saying that instead of publicizing the group this hardened my thinking toward them and pushed me toward wanting their eradication...not capture.

Additionally they gloss over the atrocities committed against Christians in Libya, Iraq and Syria by this group. I consider that govt agencies attempting to downplay the savagery of the group so that they could still be used for the real goal of removing Assad.

One thing they got right.

At no time did they really have "great numbers" of fighters.  I remember hearing an analyst saying that they had around 100K fighters.  Today?  I think that was highly doubtful.  My guess is around half that number.  Additionally when Trump stated that ISIS was defeated late last year he was right.

If you look at the Wiki page on this group you'll see that more than 20 countries, 20 state sponsored fighting groups etc...were all aligned against a force that could GENEROUSLY number only 100K fighters?

Historians will not be kind.

This war was fought STUPIDLY!

It was never about ISIS.  It was a cluster and the news media helped feed disinformation about the reality of things. 

It will cause some here pain but the reality is this.  It was about kicking out Assad.  It was about a pipeline from the Middle East to Europe. 

It was about money.

Not terrorism.

We've all been played.  We should all be ashamed.