(June 10, 2015 at 4:09 pm)Saxmoof Wrote: I could be missing something, but as far as i'm aware they have about 30,000 men, no ships, no air force and they're surrounded on all sides by countries with much stronger militaries that all oppose them. So what's the worst that could happen if we just do nothing? Surely as soon as they try to fight against one of the countries in the area they'll be destroyed, right?
No. Many of those "countries" are less countries than artificial amalgamations of tribes and religious sects with bone deep mutual grievances. ISIS has considerable number of wedges it can use to enlarge any preexisting fissures between the religious sects and tribes in each of these countries. It is by no means certain how well the "much stronger militaries" will retain their cohesions if the social fabrics of the "countries" to which these militaries nominally owe allegiance is tore along tribal and sect lines by ISIS.
