Mike Francois

Keith Conrad
History 101
Outside writing assignments
I chose to write about the on going threat to the U.S. which is the rise of Isis. A few
people might not be aware of this threat but there is a new organization called Isis which has
risen from a formerly brutal faction known as The Al-Qaeda faction. As a little background
story, Al-Qaeda is a broad-based militant Islamist organization founded by Osama bin Laden
in the late 1980s. Al-Qaeda began as a logistical network to support Muslims fighting against
the Soviet Union during the Afghan War; members were recruited throughout the Islamic
world(Encyclopedia Britannica).
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was the leader of the Alqaeda group in iraq, after Zarqawi was
killed, the leadership went to a much more experienced Iranian individual named Abu Bakr AlBagdadi who have previously been detained by the U.S.
In the year 2007, Al Qaeda had been weakened due to an event called the Sunni
awakening Which consisted of the Sunni iraqi tribes supported by American militants, rising
up to fight. Later on in 2011, Bahgdadi revived alqaeda when a conflict between syria and iraq
started arising. He profited of that opportunity to move to Syria and enlarge his ranks and
power, it was at this moment he changed Alqaeda's name to ISIS.
ISIS continues to grow and in 2014, the CIA has estimated ISIS fighters to around
24,000 foreign fighters from 90 countries had traveled to Syria to join one group or another,
3,400 of those fighters are said to have come from Western nations, including over 150 from
the U.S. (ABC News).

Although some may wonder what is the relation between the Isis group and the U.S.
because they are only terrorizing other countries. Well the ISIS group has already kidnapped
and gruesomely assassinated harmless American citizen, one citizen was James Foley who
is just a journalist who was kidnapped since 2012, although the US tried a rescue attempt in
the summer of 2014, but that mission failed due too miscalculations of the place where Foley
was being held captive. In 2014, Foley was killed publicly on camera.
Another American citizen was a 26 year old girl who was an aid worker who just
wanted to help people in need. Although it is unclear what manner she was killed but it is
certain that she died in the hands of Isis men.
If these werent good enough reason to think that Isis might be a threat to the U.S.
then perhaps the fact that an Isis member personally called out the president of the United
States in, Obama, right after beheading someone on TV on January 2015 and said he was
coming for the president might be a little more convincing. Know also that we will cut off your
head in the White House, and transform America into a Muslim Province. said the Isis
member. That was only one of the three threats that have been made publicly from the Isis
group.
Isis may not be in the U.S yet but the situation might start escalating soon if the U.S.
does not do something about it soon. And more lives will be lost if it lets the situation
escalated to much out of control.