So far President Barrack Obama has received a considerable amount of criticism for his somewhat limited foreign policies in Iraq and Syria, regarding the Islamic State (ISIS). The leaders of intelligence committees from both the Senate and the House of Representatives urged the president even further that the U.S. must directly engage with ISIS in order to prevent a very possible and imminent terrorist attack on American soil. These committee leaders represent both the Republican and Democratic Parties.
Many experts have raised the possibility of ISIS attacking somewhere in the U.S. and even Europe. Rep. Mike Rogers, an intelligence committee officer stated that ISIS militants want to launch such an overseas attack to raise funds and attract more Muslim fighters from America and Europe.
The U.S. government is currently tracking 300 American citizens who may be considered potential jihads who may leave the country to travel to the Middle East and join the Islamic State. Global intelligence is also tracking around 500 British and even more European Muslims who could join ISIS. It is believed that the militant that beheaded U.S. journalist James Foley is a British Muslim who left his home to fight for the cause of ISIS.
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is an offshoot of Al-Qaeda and is currently one of the leading terrorist organizations in the Middle East. The group's ultimate goal is to construct an Islamic state in the Levant or the Eastern Mediterranean through "jihad" or Muslim holy war. They have already conquered a considerable amount of territory and have asked Christian and other religious minorities including Sunni Muslims to join their cause or to leave or be killed.
As of now, the U.S. is carrying out airstrikes in areas where ISIS is believed to be active such as the town of Mosul. The U.S. military is also providing the Kurdish forces with American weaponry, but the administration made it clear that the U.S. is maintaining such foreign policy mostly for the protection of American military and diplomatic personnel in the area.
However, leaders from both the Democratic and Republican parties have stated that America must to more to fight against ISIS. Mitt Romney went as far as to suggest that it was Obama's mistakes that allowed ISIS to gain so much power in the Iraq-Syria area.
