Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

Examples of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the following topics:

• Policy in the Middle East

  • In June 2014, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a radical Islamist militant group consisting of mostly Sunni Muslims and once affiliated with al-Qaeda, launched a military offensive in Northern Iraq and seized control of Sunni-dominated areas of Iraq and Syria.
  • On June 29, 2014, it proclaimed the formation of the Islamic State with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as caliph, the state’s political and religious leader.
  • This elicited another military response from the United States and its allies, and the insurgency and many dimensions of the civil armed conflict continue.
  • Osama bin Laden, the founder and head of the Islamist group al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011 by United States Navy SEALs of the U.S.
  • Analyze Obama's decisions in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the significance of Osama bin Laden's death

• Obama's Foreign Policy

  • In addition to inheriting the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, President Obama's foreign policy efforts included relations with Syria, Israel, and Cuba.
  • As Obama entered his second term in office, problems continued overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • The war is being fought by the Syrian Government, a loose alliance of Syrian Arab rebel groups, the Syrian Democratic Forces, Salafi jihaidst groups (including al-Nusra Front), and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, sometimes referred to as ISIS).
  • In June of 2012, Obama said that the bond between the United States and Israel is "unbreakable."
  • Beginning in the spring of 2013, secret meetings were conducted between the United States and Cuba in the neutral locations of Canada and Vatican City.

• The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

  • The United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 and then Iraq in 2003, justifying both as part of the ongoing "War on Terror."
  • Two distinct schools of thought arose in the Bush Administration regarding the question of how to handle countries such as Iraq, Iran, and North Korea (the so-called "Axis of Evil" states).
  • Prior to the war, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom claimed that Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed a threat to their security and that of their coalition/regional allies.
  • Relations between the United States and Iraq had been strained ever since the Gulf War a decade earlier.
  • In December 2011, all U.S. personnel were withdrawn, and the United States officially declared the end of the Iraq War.

• The War on Terrorism

  • The United States supported the Islamist mujahadeen guerillas against the military forces of the Soviet Union and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan.
  • The Taliban demanded evidence of bin Laden's link to the 11 September attacks and, if such evidence warranted a trial, they offered to handle such a trial in an Islamic Court.
  • Iraq had been listed as a State Sponsor of Terrorism by the U.S. since 1990, when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
  • In October 2002, a large bipartisan majority in the United States Congress authorized the president to use force if necessary to disarm Iraq in order to "prosecute the war on terrorism. " After failing to overcome opposition from France, Russia, and China against a UNSC resolution that would sanction the use of force against Iraq, and before the U.N. weapons inspectors had completed their inspections, the U.S. assembled a "Coalition of the Willing" composed of nations who pledged support for its policy of regime change in Iraq.
  • The Bush administration also stated that the Iraq War was part of the War on Terror, a claim that was later questioned.

• Terrorism

  • The threat of terrorism is one of the greatest challenges facing the United States and the international community.
  • The threat of terrorism is one of the greatest challenges facing the United States and the international community.
  • Islamic terrorism has taken place in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the United States since the 1970's.
  • These attacks marked the beginning of the "War on Terror," an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom (with the support of NATO and non-NATO allies) against Al-Qaeda and other associated militant organizations with the stated goal of eliminating them.
  • The War on Terror would include the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq .

• The Assyrians

  • Centered on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia (northern Iraq, northeast Syria, and southeastern Turkey), the Assyrians came to rule powerful empires at several times, the last of which grew to be the largest and most powerful empire the world had yet seen.
  • Assyria is named for its original capital, the ancient city of Ašur (a.k.a., Ashur) which dates to c. 2600 BCE and was located in what is now the Saladin Province of northern Iraq.
  • In the Old Assyrian period, Assyria established colonies in Asia Minor and the Levant.
  • From the late 19th century BCE, Assyria came into conflict with the newly created state of Babylonia, which eventually eclipsed the older Sumero-Akkadian states in the south, such as Ur, Isin, Larsa and Kish.
  • After its fall (between 612-605 BCE), Assyria remained a province and geo-political entity under the Babylonian, Median, Achaemenid, Seleucid, Parthian, Roman, and Sassanid Empires, until the Arab Islamic invasion and conquest of Mesopotamia in the mid-7th century CE when it was finally dissolved.

• Rebuilding Iraq

  • Much of this work has been funded by the the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.
  • As a result of the war and these sanctions, the water and waste systems of Iraq declined precipitously.
  • The March 2003 invasion of Iraq further damaged Iraq's water, sewage, and electrical systems .
  • The IRRF is administered and funded by the United States.
  • Many of these Iraqi firms were shut out of the process because they were state-owned.

• Iraq

  • Since the United States recognized an independent Iraq in 1930, relations with that nation have been an important aspect of U.S. foreign policy.
  • After the September 11, 2001 attacks, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom claimed that Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed a threat to their security and that of their coalitional and regional allies.
  • Violence against coalition forces and among various sectarian groups soon led to the Iraqi insurgency, strife between many Sunni and Shia Iraqi groups, and the emergence of a new faction of al-Qaeda in Iraq.
  • The "One weekend a month, two weeks a year" slogan has lost most of its relevance since the Iraq War, when nearly 28% of total US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan at the end of 2007 consisted of mobilized personnel of the National Guard and other Reserve components. [35] In July 2012, the Army's top general stated his intention to increase the annual drill requirement from two weeks per year to up to seven weeks per year.
  • -Iraq relations and the U.S.

• Islamic Ceramics

  • Another significant contribution was the development of stonepaste ceramics, originating from 9th century Iraq.
  • Techniques, shapes, and decorative motifs of Chinese ceramics were admired and emulated by Islamic potters, especially after the Mongol and Timurid invasions.
  • The development of this type of pharmacy jar had its roots in the Islamic Middle East.
  • Ottoman Iznik pottery produced most of the finest ceramics of the 16th century, in tiles and large vessels boldly decorated with floral motifs influenced by Chinese Yuan and Ming ceramics.
  • Discuss how developments such as tin-opacified glazing and stonepaste ceramics made Islamic ceramics some of the most advanced of its time.

• The Middle East

  • President Clinton was involved with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, confrontation with Iraq, and normalization of relations with Iran.
  • In 1991, following the Persian Gulf War, the warring parties signed a cease-fire agreement and the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 687 requiring Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction and allow inspectors from UNSCOM to monitor the country's adherence to the agreement.
  • In addition to UN inspections, no-fly zones over Iraq were established by the U.S. and its allies to protect the Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan and the Shiites in southern Iraq from aerial attacks by the Iraqi government.
  • A year before, the President declared that Iran was a "state sponsor of terrorism'" and a "rogue state", marking the first time that an American President used that term.
  • By the time Clinton left office in January 2001, it was clear that relations between Iran and the United States had significantly cooled.