| Jumpin said: "The Caliphate" That's a gigantic exageration. Caliphate roughly translates to Empire; but it has greater meaning by Arabic reckoning is greater than that too, as it must be ruled by someone from royal lineage in the line of Qeraysh. Calling them the Caliphate is as accurate as calling them the Roman Empire. They're a few thousand paramilitary rebels that is over-exposed in Western media, not an Empire. |
ISIS was a major force because they included most of the Sunnis in Iraq and Syria after the Shia-government took control in Iraq. The Sunni-Shia divide in Iraq will be a long-term line of friction.
If ISIS is defeated by 'colluding' with the Russians without another escalation it will be the largest foreign success by Trump/Mattis repairing most of the damage that Obama/Clinton started by trying to overthrow the government of Syria (and Libya).
