Sunni Militants' Ranks Now Four Times the 9/11 Number and Rising: Study
Source: The Daily Beast
Despite trillions of dollars spent and millions of dead or injured, there are now four times as many Sunni Islamic militants active around the world today as there were on Sept. 11, 2001, according to a new study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an independent Washington think tank. The reports concludes that while Islamist militant groups have lost physical territory, as result of nearly two decades of Western intervention, the groups have continued to gain in numbers. The study points to policy failures by Western allies, potency of the groups ideology, and use of social media to raise money and attract new recruits as key factors in the militants resiliency. Despite the nearly $5.9 trillion the United States alone has spent on global counterterrorism campaigns, the number of attempted attacks remains steady, the CSIS report states.
According to the study, a top estimate of 230,000 fighters are active in nearly 70 countries, with the largest numbers in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The report warns that Pentagon plans to withdraw forces from those countries could actually help terrorist groups as the Trump administration shifts its national-security priorities to Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran. The good news is that there has not been an attack anywhere near the scale of 9/11 in the U.S. since that day, a significant achievement, the center said. The bad news is that the ideology that leads someone to fly a plane into a building or drive a car into a crowded sidewalk seems to have metastasized.
READ IT AT NEW YORK TIMES
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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/sunni-militants-ranks-now-four-times-the-911-number-and-rising-study
JonLP24
(29,322 posts)They should make a difference between Wahabbism and Sunni Islam. Huge difference. Blame Saudi Arabia as well as the US & Britain. Trashing thread no offense to you just don't like the Daily Beast article.
sandensea
(21,621 posts)Dubya may have been an idiot; but Cheney and Rumsfeld certainly weren't.
They - and thier bankrollers - want as much conflict in the Middle East as possible.
4du
(56 posts)It has the answer as to how to win this war.
The proceedings described in this report were hosted by the RAND National Security Research Division, which conducts research and analysis for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, the Unified Commands, the defense agencies, the Department of the Navy, the U.S. intelligence community, allied foreign governments, and foundations.
https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/conf_proceedings/2005/RAND_CF211.pdf