Understand how ISIS became ISIS; Will McCants talks about his new book

It’s Wednesday October 21st.

So do you really understand what ISIS is?

We’ll find out -- with an expert.

Will McCants directs the Project on US Relations with the Islamic World at the Brookings Institution.  He also teaches at Johns Hopkins University.  He was also a senior adviser for countering violent extremism at the State Department.  He has just written a book called ISIS Apocalypse: The History, Strategy, and Doomsday Vision of the Islamic State – which I just finished on audible. 

How Russian military intervention and Vladimir Putin have changed the situation?

Let me give some of my take-aways for folks who haven’t read the book.  First, this was not a political treatise but an academic view at how ISIS began.  Second, there are no real solutions – or easy solutions – to this problem. I mention this because I think opposing sides in the US obscure what is really happening there – or what can be done.  Is there a real solution to ending ISIS?

US boots on the ground usually ends up in disaster or encouraging more jihadists.  Same thing here?

In the short run, ISIS can last with its terror tactics and destroy a lot of lives.  But in the long run, can we assume they won’t exist as a state offering services to its so-called subjects?

Do we need to worry about ISIS attacking us here?

Morally corrupt ISIS leaders are in their use of the Koran to justify their barbarism.

Usama bin Laden was actually moderate and forward thinking compared to ISIS breakaway leaders.

Most Americans are confused and apathetic about foreign policy issues because they just don’t understand what is happening there.

Talk about the website Jihadica.