Originally a small faction of al-Qa’idah in 2004, the insurgent group IS (also known as ISIL, ISIS or Da’esh) has captured large swaths of land in Iraq and Syria.

Touting a radical brand of Sunni faith, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria joined the Syrian civil war last June, exploiting instability in the region to fight against the Shia regime of Bashar al-Assad and the moderate Free Syrian Army (FSA).

On June 30, IS announced the creation of a caliphate transcending the current Western-constructed borders; a culmination of Arab resentment of Western policy, from the Skyes-Picot border pact at the beginning of the 20th century to the founding of Israel in 1948 and the 2003 U. S. invasion of Iraq.

IS’ long-term objective is to reinstate a domain reminiscent of the former Ottoman Empire. Through a complex, extensive social media presence, the group has garnered individuals from all over the world to fight for their cause.

IS is pitted against the Syrian and Iraqi governments, both of which are manned by an overwhelmingly Shia majority. The radical terror cell has continued to commit atrocities in its sectarian attacks against Iraqi and Syrian citizens.

Following IS’ beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and of British aid worker David Haines, the U. S. government unveiled its plans to enter the region for the third time in two decades.

President Obama addressed the nation on Sept. 10, outlining the U. S. coalition against IS.

First, we will conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists,” he said. “ I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are.”

“Second, […] we will send an additional 475 servicemembers to Iraq. As I have said before, these American forces will not have a combat mission — we will not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq,” he said.

“Effective for what? To defeat ISIS? No. It’s not enough,” said Dr. Bernard Haykel, Director of the Transregional Institute for the Study of the Middle East and North Africa at Princeton University, in a phone interview with The Winged Post.

Dr. Haykel believes that intervention is imperative, but does not think the U. S. should be mired in a coalition. He favored the training of local forces on the ground instead of the use of air power.

“There are strategic interests for the United States in the region that involve oil; stability of the world; Israel,” Dr. Haykel said when asked about U. S. geopolitical interests in the Middle East.

Haykel is also the author of upcoming book Saudi Arabia in Transition: Insights on Social, Political, Economic and Religious Change.

Dr. Daniel Sargent, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley and author of the upcoming book A Superpower Transformed, also mentioned oil as a point of interest for the American government in a phone interview with The Winged Post.

“I think that there has to be a coalition involving preferably as many Arab partners as possible. The reality of a carbon-based economy is such that the economic security not just of the United States, but the entire industrialized world, depends upon a modicum of geopolitical stability in the Middle East,” he said. “For better or worse, the United States is the only external power with the capacity to provide that.”

A major concern has been the extensive financing IS has been able to acquire, mostly through crude oil sales and extortion or kidnapping. However, IS allegedly  receives covert backing from Turkey, a member of NATO, and Saudi Arabia, a close American ally, despite the Saudis’ pledges to ally with the initiative.

Ramzi Jahshan (12) is supportive of the measures taken against IS; he is half Lebanese. IS has been attempting to make inroads into Lebanon, skirmishing with Hizbollah.

Currently, IS has moved into the border town of Kobanê, where it has been fighting Syrian Kurdish resistance. NATO member Turkey has been unwilling to supply more than limited military aid in this conflict, due to its tense history with ethnic Kurds.

According to the New York Times, American airstrikes against IS in Syria began on Sept. 22 with assistance from Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Obama administration has been unable to describe how U. S. strikes will not indirectly aid the Assad regime, which began overtly waging their own campaigns of brutality against Syrians three years ago.

This article was originally published in the pages of The Winged Post on Oct. 17, 2014.