How long before the U.S. invades ISIS?

[Machaut]

From the beginning of the "Syrian uprising" (if one can call an influx of foreign guerrillas and terrorists an uprising), there has been a call for the U.S. to not do anything.

Don?t Get Involved in Syria | Intercollegiate Review

...the country is weary of long “nation-building” campaigns that are difficult to connect with American interests, and this type of engagement could only exacerbate the chaos. Therefore, this option should be rejected as well.

The British Parliament seems to agree. Last week, they voted down a motion to initiate military action in Syria.

...If we want to stand up against chemical weapons, we would need to support both sides. The best way to do that in this case is to avoid getting involved.

According to this May 2013 poll by Gallup, most Americans were opposed to getting involved in yet another war in the Middle East a little over a year ago.

Americans Oppose U.S. Military Involvement in Syria

Sixty-eight percent of Americans say the United States should not use military action in Syria to attempt to end the civil war there if diplomatic and economic efforts fail, while 24% would favor U.S. military involvement.

However, has the situation changed?

ISIS Declares Restoration of Caliphate, Changes Name - TIME

The extremist Sunni group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) on Sunday declared a new caliphate — or an Islamic state to claim dominion over Muslims across the globe — on the territory it holds in the two countries.

So ISIS, one of the main terror groups fighting Bashar al-Assad's government in Syria, has declared their own country. But anyone can declare a new country. It takes resources--chiefly money and manpower--to be able to defend it, not to mention popular support abroad to ensure one isn't forced to actually defend their new country too often.

ISIS takes over Iraq's main oil refinery at Baiji - reports ? RT News

Sunni militants have gained full control over Iraq’s main oil refinery at Baiji, south of Mosul, according to media reports.

Radicals from the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS, or ISIL) have been attacking the refinery, which is responsible for supplying a third of Iraq’s oil, for the past ten days.

The militants are planning to hand over the complex to local tribes for day-to-day management, BBC quoted a rebels’ spokesman as saying, adding that the militants will continue to make their way to Baghdad.

Al-Arabiya also reported that the refinery was taken over by Sunni militants. Meanwhile three Iraqi officials also confirmed to CNN the militants had seized the Baiji oil refinery.

Financing Jihad: Why ISIL Is a Lot Richer Than Al-Qaeda - Bloomberg

Al-Qaeda fought and lost to U.S. forces in Iraqi towns ISIL now controls, including the city of Mosul, while an al-Qaeda offshoot has set up a stronghold in the southern mountains of Yemen after Saudi security cracked down on them in 2004. By holding key territory, ISIL may be able to dodge global efforts to halt the flow of money to terrorists.

The Haditha Dam in northwestern Iraq on the Euphrates River and sections of the 600,000 barrel-a-day pipeline running to Turkey, which hasn’t operated since March, are targets of ISIL, said Hassan Hassan, an analyst with Delma Institute, an Abu Dhabi-based research center.

The North Fertilizer Plant in Baiji, which Houston-based KBR Inc. won a contract to revamp in 2011, could also fall under their control, as could cement plants in the north, Hassan said.

ISIL tries to control “any lucrative resources from oilfields, gas plants, paper factories,” he said.

The militants fought other rebel groups, including the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusrah Front, for control of the oil and gas fields in Syria, according to Amir al-Dandal, a son of the representative of Al Bou Kamal tribes in the country’s east.

“ISIL is the most organized in terms of controlling wells and selling to traders,” al-Dandal, 33, who now lives in Qatar and has close contact with family members there, said by telephone. “It’s a war for money, and oil is key.”

ISIL may be taking in several million dollars a month, according to a U.S. intelligence officer, who spoke during a telephone briefing on June 24 and declined to use his name because of security concerns. The group also probably seized more cash from banks, the officer said.

In Mosul, ISIL fighters stripped guards of their weapons at a central bank branch and stole the “little money” the bank had when they took the city earlier this month, Walid Eedi, director general of statistics at Iraqi central bank, said this month. Gunmen stole about $1 million, he said.

So it would appear that ISIS has massive amounts of cash--apparently a million USD is a small haul for them--literally on hand, not stored in a bank where it can be frozen and reappropriated for use against them, as happened to Gaddafi in Libya. But beyond their direct theft of money, they are also taking over production centers for oil, gas, fertilizer, cement, paper, and "any lucrative resources" they can come by, indicating not only that ISIS is in this for the long haul, but that they are more than willing to continue to grow at the immediate expense of other terror groups (such as the al-Nusrah Front) and countries (Iraq and Syria).

ISIS Is Hiring Judges, Doctors And Engineers As Al-Qaeda Prepares For War Against Caliphate | Zero Hedge

As Al Arabiya reports, the newly named “caliph” said the appeal especially applied to “judges and those who have military and managerial and service skills, and doctors and engineers in all fields.”

According to AFP, the declaration of an Islamic caliphate in parts of Iraq and Syria is a direct challenge to Al-Qaeda and could set off a dangerous contest for the leadership of the global jihadist movement, experts say.

Here is where it gets interesting: Al-Qaeda can hardly ignore what is essentially a declaration of war from an upstart that has scored a string of successes, said Magnus Ranstorp, an expert on radical Islamic movements at the Swedish National Defence College.

Finally, in what could be the coup de grace in its recruitment efforts, the Islamic State is allowing its cannibal terrorists to use FaceBook and Twitter. In other words, the original Al Qaeda will have to blow up some really big and really symbolic buildings to regain its coolness factor from its much younger and much hipper Islamic State terrorist competition.

The immediate assumption many would have for ISIS's wanted ad is that the doctors are needed to care for wounded fighters, and engineers to build IEDs. But most ominously, ISIS is requesting administrators to make sure everything flows right. When you look to the workforce of the undeveloped world and compare it with its developed counterpart, perhaps the most immediate thing to notice is the amount of managers/administrators the developed workforce uses. Looking at a hunting expedition for rural tribes in Africa or South America, a leader may stick out predominantly, but he is still just as much a worker as the rest. The same goes for the vast rice fields of Asia; most people have witnessed farmers bending over in the hot sun all day--or at least for a few minutes via the magic of television--but can you recall spotting an overseer, a dedicated manager of the work group? ISIS's appeal for people with "managerial and service skills" speaks volumes as to its plans for the future.

ISIS's goal in this new wave of recruitment isn't to support a raggedy militia, but rather to build a sturdy country. The doctors will be needed to provide healthcare, the engineers to rebuild the territories they conquer and ensure service systems such as water, sewer, and electricity are working correctly. ISIS, at this point, does not have "fighters"--it has troops. ISIS has crippled the Iraqi government's finances, stealing millions of dollars in cash at a time and now taking over one third of their oil production capacity. ISIS is waging an effective PR campaign as well, allowing--as ZeroHedge notes--its supporters to take to Facebook and Twitter, where all the young people are. To appeal to older, more strictly religious audiences, ISIS has already floated the idea of attacking Mecca and destroying the Kaaba as it promotes idolatry. It is already actively waging war against al-Qaeda and its affiliated groups, taking not only their resources but also their rhetoric; according to ISIS, al-Qaeda is too moderate, a group of infidels compared to ISIS's stalwart jihadi interpretation of Islam. As noted in the RT story, ISIS is also allowing locals to operate the refineries, plants, etc. they capture, thus endearing them to the local community. As a brief aside, the group MEND routinely attacks the refineries of companies like BP and Shell because they pollute the area and bring in a 100% outside workforce, thus completely isolating the local population; ISIS has resolved this issue before it even became a problem for them, so whoever attempts to wrest control of these money-makers from ISIS will have to take on the entire communities that stand around them.

A new country has been founded--one with money, resources to make more money, lucrative job opportunities for newcomers, a strong national identity focused entirely upon the prevailing religion in the area, and an amazingly astute public and foreign relations division. This country has already begun issuing ultimatums to Christians in the area to "convert, submit, or die", and has announced their desire to invade Saudi Arabia with the express intent of leveling their most population tourist destination.

While many have speculated--rightly so--that the U.S. is ultimately behind the rise of ISIS, this remains only speculation. What we can say for certain is that so-called "U.S. allies" (the various dictatorships masquerading as monarchies in the Middle East) have either been funding ISIS themselves or, at the absolute minimum, turning a blind eye to others doing it from within their country.

Why are America?s Allies funding ISIS in Iraq? | Ben Swann Truth In Media

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which is currently storming its way through Iraq, was funded for years by rich donors from our supposed allies in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

As ISIS takes over town after town in Iraq, they are acquiring money and supplies including American-made vehicles, arms and ammunition. The group reportedly scored $430 million when they looted the main bank in Mosul.

Donors in Kuwait, the Sunni majority Kingdom on Iraq’s border, have taken advantage of Kuwait’s weak financial rules to channel hundreds of millions of dollars to a host of Syrian rebel brigades, according to a December 2013 report by The Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank that receives some funding from the Qatari government.

ISIS formed in April 2013 out of al-Qaeda in Iraq and an affiliate in Syria.

How long will it be before the West, particularly the U.S., gets involved in this situation and openly goes to war with ISIS? Has the situation changed? Is this no longer a simple civil war in Syria, but now an international crisis? When a new country is formed based upon the idea that one must kill, convert, or conquer everyone in the new nation's path, does it become appropriate for the U.S. to intervene? Should we, at least, stop sending billions of dollars--in both money and weapons--to the Middle East, where they seem to universally end up in the hands of terror groups?