Analyzing Isis With A Former US Marine

What You Need To Know:

✓ There is an existential crisis as to what kind of future will be in the Middle East, whether it will be a strand of Islam that looks forward and is progressive or one that looks back and is repressive;
✓ There are many players in Syria and sides are constantly changing, therefore it makes a successful foreign intervention impossible. 

American writer and former marine Eliot Ackerman shared with Hromadske his insights about Isis. Ackerman spoke about how the conflict has changed since it first came about. “The conflict in Syria has shifted from one which in the early days was about liberal, democratic minded reforms, to one that’s become extremely sectarian, with the goals of the Islamic State to establish its caliphate. The war that’s gone on has continued to morph and take on other shapes and will continue to do so."

Ackerman believes that the success of the Islamic State is directly tied to international political will. “One of the reasons the Islamic State is so strong right now is because there isn’t much international will to get involved in another war in Iraq or even Syria… so that means that the only thing that matters is who is strong at the moment, and that’s why the Islamic State is able to dictate policy.”

Hromadske’s Natalya Gumenyuk spoke with Eliot Ackerman in September 2015 .

Analyzing Isis With A Former US Marine by Hromadske International on Mixcloud