“ISIL is not invincible,” said National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Matthew Olsen, referring to the extremist organization (known also as ISIS and Islamic State) currently in control of large areas of both Syria and Iraq, during an event today sponsored by the Intelligence Project at Brookings. Yet, said Olsen, the group still “poses a direct and significant threat to us, and to Iraqi and Syrian civilians in the region, and potentially to us here at home.”
After laying out the background describing ISIL’s rise and stating that “ISIL threatens to outpace al Qaeda as the dominant voice of influence in the global extremist movement,” Olsen emphasized that “it is important that we keep this threat in perspective and we take a moment to consider it in the context of the overall terrorist landscape. The rise of ISIL can be viewed as one, one manifestation of the transformation of the global jihadist movement over past several years.”
“ISIL has captured our immediate focus,” Olsen said, “but it is only one of the myriad groups that pose a threat to us as the terrorist landscape evolves and becomes increasingly complex and challenging for us.”
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…the U.S. and citizens of the U.S. should just leave those people alone!…let the people of the “middle East” run their part of the world..the journalist and business folk who suffer because they put themselves in harms way bear significant responsibility for their actions…their deaths do not merit an overt or covert war by the U.S. on ISIL or any other group that the people in that part of the world are evidently supporting…Bring the troops home, where they should be…no more war….