Terrorism has been a focal point for the United States (U.S.) in the 21st century because of the threat terrorist organizations pose on homeland security. Since September 11th, 2001 (9/11), the U.S. has been on the offensive against certain foreign terrorist organizations, with a large focus on al-Qaeda. After a decade of fighting al-Qaeda, the U.S. felt as if it’s efforts in Iraq had been successful in terms of reforming the Iraqi government into a democracy, setting the country up to effectively combat al-Qaeda threats without the help of the U.S. However, upon the departure of the U.S. from Iraq, the tumultuous relationship between Shia and Sunni tribes escalated and soon a civil war was underway. This conflict gave rise to a new Islamic …show more content…
Despite the U.S. or global reliance on the Middle East’s reserves, IS exports about 9,000 barrels of oil per day to gain supplies, weapons, and backing from the surrounding areas (Stephens, 2014). This precarious oil situation poses an enormous threat the U.S. in terms of economy as well as oil supply to our military. In order to replenish U.S. supply, if it were to diminish with IS hold over the Middle East, the U.S. would have to either remove IS from control or buy from IS, lending to their state. Moreover, with ISIS control of vast amounts of territory in the Middle East, they would have control of oil reserves that other countries rely heavily on. This could pose a major threat to the developed world because ISIS could use the oil trade as leverage for countries to side with their radical ideals. It is known that IS primarily functions for the profits generated by selling oil on the black market, and “the Islamic State controls more territory than al-Qaeda ever has, which means it has access to money on an unprecedented scale to finance its mayhem” (Kerry, 2014). If IS encompasses the territory in which the world’s oil supply is generated, coupled with a monopoly over prices, this can prove to be problematic for the U.S., and possibly the rest of the world in that their power will be seemingly unmatched. The resource accumulation alone could be enough for IS to build alliances …show more content…
The strategy of IS is brutal and unforgiving in a sense that their claim of becoming a caliphate requires vows from the Muslim community to their state and its leader, and if Muslim groups deem otherwise, IS does not consider them real Muslims (Fink & Sugg, 2015). IS believes the duty of jihadists is to establish the caliphate, and that it can only be done so by force of arms. There seems to be no plan of IS to satisfy or even embrace all of the different factions of the Muslim community, rather the belief here is that the population should be pushed by whatever means necessary to join the Islamic State, and those that stand against, again, are not Muslim in the eyes of IS (Fink & Sugg, 2015). Instead, they would be considered opposition to IS, and as we have all seen, non-supporters are brutally and publicly executed. Coupled with the brutality in which IS executes its tactics and its declaration of the caliphate, IS has forged new relationships with other terrorist organizations, including Africa’s Boko Haram, lending to their ideology of creating an Islamic State. Such forged relationships, or partnerships rather, are extremely dangerous to the U.S. We are no longer looking at one foreign area in the Middle East as the source of attacks, rather the threat has moved over continents, providing another hotbed for potential attacks (Gottelieb, 2014). Boko Haram has yet to attack