ISIS/ISIL/IS: Battlefield
One of the indicators that the enemy formerly known as ISIS is an ever-evolving foe, is that it is now called by yet another name. It seems we’re back to where we started. Once known as AQI, Al-Qaeda in Iraq, it then came to be known as the Islamic State in Iraq. ISI. As this combatant force expanded into Syria, It became the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, ISIS.
As ISIS began to gain and hold territory, the White House and others began to refer to this dreadful foe by its more current self-proclaimed and more ambitious moniker, Islamic State in the Levant; ISIL. The Levant is described by Miriam Webster’s and others, as the countries bordering on the E Mediterranean, more specifically , the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea north of the Arabian Peninsula and south of Turkey, usually including the area of Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria.
As Anti-ISIS coalition Ground and Air Forces began to implement their will against the enemy, though, ISIS was forced to give over held territory and retreat from the Battlefield. Therefore, the whole Levant notion became somewhat inaccurate and outmoded. As significant gains were made in Iraq, the ISIS tag too, became somewhat misleading. Now reduced to ever more precarious holdouts in Syria, Islamic State in Syria (IS), may also prove inadequate.
That’s’ not to say IS/ISIS is defeated, though they most certainly are in Retreat from the present Battlefield. Over time, IS, has proved a versatile foe. Although in retreat in Iraq and Syria, their versatility is on display elsewhere. Having had Time and Territory to establish, recruit, train and arm a Terrorist Force, their operations now take on a more International scope.
And with marked success. Having been responsible, or at least blamed for various deadly Global Terrorist Operations, IS has demonstrated the ability and a willingness to continue the Fight.
So while they might be in Retreat from their ‘Levant’ Battleground, the threat posed is no less great, only Different. Remembering we are not just fighting an Enemy, but an Ideology, our efforts too, must adapt to become no less great, only Different.
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