(Foreign Policy) James Traub - The foreign jihadi group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has 8,000 soldiers in Syria. But the group's medieval ideology, as well as its pathological obsession with enforcing Islamist rectitude, has made it a source of terror. ISIS has deflected attention away from the war between the regime and the rebels and has vindicated as nothing else could Assad's claim that he is confronting "terrorists." The rise of ISIS has made the situation much worse for the rebels, much worse for the West, and much better for the regime. Radicalization is likely to increase, not diminish, as foreign extremists keep streaming into Syria. The writer is a fellow of the Center on International Cooperation.
2013-10-11 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive