ISIS: Iraq today and possibly Jordan tomorrow

Don't be fooled by its name: The terror group "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" plans to attack well beyond the borders of those two countries. After snatching an Iraq-Jordan checkpoint, Amman is on high alert.

André Bank, a Middle East expert at the Hamburg-based German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), says the group's goal is to establish in Islamic state in Iraq as well as "Greater Syria."

"That means not only Syria, parts of Iraq, Lebanon and large parts of [historical] Palestine, but also large areas of Jordan," he told DW.

That territorial claim can be seen in an ISIS propaganda video released last week on the Internet. In it, five fighters, apparently from the UK and Australia, speak to the camera.

ISIS: Iraq today and possibly Jordan tomorrow

Jordan's head of state, King Abdullah II has a lot on his plate right now.

Not only is his country having to deal with hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria he now faces a threat from ISIS right on his door step. A potential enemy who after capturing several Iraqi military bases is now in possession of state of the art US supplied arms, armor and munitions.

Our own American State department has said they will not be drawn into a ground war with ISIS.
but if this attack on Jordan takes place we may have no other choice but to intercede.

In 1996 Then President Bill Clinton conferred Jordan as a Major non-NATO ally (MNNA) --- A designation given by the United States government to close allies who have strategic working relationships with US Armed Forces but are not members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

While the MNNA status does not automatically include a mutual defense pact with the United States, it does confer a variety of military and financial advantages that otherwise are not obtainable by non-NATO countries.

Even before then the western powers have seen Jordan as a critical stabilizing influence in the region, one they would not like to see suddenly vanish.

Jordan also has a good many Gulf monarchies as well as well as Israel. So it will be interesting to see just who comes the call if ISIS is really silly and or emboldened enough to invade?

Rignt now the bulk of the ISIS manpower is Iraqi Sunnis and ex Iraqi Army. They are concerned only with Iraq and are in a marriage of convience. ISIS may move on Jordan but, they would do it without most of their forces, not to mention Iraq is hardly done. In fact ISIS has pretty much spent its offensive load and seems unlikely to do anything more than try and hold on to what they have. If the Iraqi government agrees to a unity goverment that will sap alot of Sunni support for ISIS. If the US provides some air support the Iraqi army should be able to retake the territory lost.

We are about to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49. ISIS has begun their invasion of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The Jordanian King will be sent into exile. The terrorists will fight over his throne. The Jordanian Capital Amman will be nuked. Israel will regain land in Jordan that rightfully belongs to them.

Unidentified bombers have reportedly launched an air strike on ISIS positions in the northern Iraqi city of al-Qaim. Iraqi television has claimed they are US planes, but the Pentagon has denied responsibility. US planes were identified by Iraqi television, but the Saudi Al-Arabiya network claims that the raid was carried out by Syria, citing local tribal chiefs.

RT

Wonder if it was the US or some other nation. I guess time will tell.

I just find it fascinating that every day another faction rises up and stirs up trouble over there and we get drawn into it.

Is war really that profitable? Bahh

a reply to: MrSpad

That's the thing about Jihadist. There not thinking about politics or military stratagem.
They feel god is on their side, feel that they are ordained to take over and create this new Islamite utopia, purging themselves of all the nonbelievers, even those who simply do not worship in what they think as the only way.

I think this kind of perceived arrogance is what will lead them to making a play for Jordan. Esp after they had such an easy time in making big advances into Iraq.

In comparison to Iraq, the Jordanian military is well equipped, well trained and highly motivated.

I don't think ISIS will attack Jordan, not until they have secured Iraq (or large chunks of it) more permanently. They simply don't have the manpower or fire-power to even push into Jordan, much less overcome their Army and Air Force.

They want rid of the Sykes-Picot borders. There is already Saudi talk of acceptance of ISIS as a ''state''.

Sykes-Picot borders

he last five years have provided opportunities for a new crop of quasi-states to emerge, each articulating alternative visions of governance and regional order. Consider the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a splinter group originating as al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Many observers see ISIL at best as an organized crime syndicate, at worst a terrorist group so viciously anti-Shiite that even al-Qaeda has disowned it. Both descriptions are correct, but incomplete, as they overlook ISIL’s ambition to be a state (and the extent to which all states resemble organized crime rackets). ISIL explicitly rejects the political divisions inherited from Sykes-Picot. At the same time, though, ISIL’s self-description as an Islamic state (dawlah), instead of merely organization, movement or army, is important and controversial. Indeed, despite a rocky beginning, ISIL today in many ways looks and acts like a state. In Mosul, according to reports, ISIL enforced taxes on a variety of commercial activities, including telecommunications companies that had relay towers in ISIL-controlled zones. Those who refused to pay risked abduction or murder. In Syria’s Raqqa province ISIL imposed the jizya (poll tax), the same tax the prophet Muhammad placed on non-Muslim communities in return for protection.

english.alarabiya.net...

The first draft of the map was as such before it was amended to the current borders between Syria and Iraq by the preferences of Mr. Sykes and Mr. Picot in London and Paris. But why was this amendment done? We need a historian to answer this. However, anyone who knows history is aware that no Islamic state was established in Mosul without expanding to Aleppo and the rest of the Levant. So is Mosul the natural extension of the Levant and vice versa? This looks like a fun exercise during a history session but when it comes to politics, it's a nightmare for the region. The state we're talking about is the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). I think it's time we give them the “respect” they deserve after the victories they achieved last week and after they forced themselves on the region. We must thus call them "the state," as they like to be called, despite our huge differences with them and the mandatory fear of them.

Forget the U.S. If they take Jordan, Israel is going to go ballistic. It's Israel's reaction to all of this that I'm watching like a hawk. If Jordan gets in trouble and we don't intervene, then Israel may just decide that we're an ally without teeth and then just start trying to level half the middle east.

a reply to: HardCorps

The thing about ISIS that some might not realise is that they are learned about the history of the Middle East and about the religious political machinations and aspirations of Islam and they used that for furthering their aims.

The Middle East is complex, the political situation has been going on in various ways for more than 1500 years. It evolves into whichever factions and uses whichever means it can with each and every interaction, be that from Europe, US or wherever, it has kept sight of it's goals and used interactions for expansion whilst those it interacted with were perhaps blinded to their aims and to the history of the area and their cause. Like an elaborate chess game where some of the pieces were unknown, it has always been a trepidatious area to the progressive West and our freedom ideology.

There are many players at play in the Middle East, each for their own agenda and sometimes colluding in their aims. Any solution to the issues there would need a baseline that each agrees to.

ISIS is not as small a group as everyone thinks.
There's been a lot of international recruiting going on for some time.
German
Spanish
Even the UK

There a lot bigger than people give them credit for Esp when they don't really have an age limit on those they take into their ranks

originally posted by: stumason
In comparison to Iraq, the Jordanian military is well equipped, well trained and highly motivated.

I don't think ISIS will attack Jordan, not until they have secured Iraq (or large chunks of it) more permanently. They simply don't have the manpower or fire-power to even push into Jordan, much less overcome their Army and Air Force.

They might not have a capable force at this particular moment in time, but that doesn't mean it isn't a possibility in the future or that the world should underestimate the plans and abilities of the jihadists in the ME. Jordan is on their list, and so is Israel. It's a powder keg and it WILL go off if ISIS isn't stamped out like the vermin they are. Just because Jordan and Israel have the numbers and the tech to defend themselves against ISIS currently, doesn't mean there isn't potential for the situation to get worse by other nations becoming entangled in this mess.

a reply to: HardCorps

Since ISIS is planning on taking over Palestine I wonder how would Hamas and the PLO would react to that?

a reply to: PGTWEED

The Jordanian King was the head of special forces prior to being king and having been to Jordan I can tell you most have King and country first before Islam unlike Iraq ISIS would be in for one hell of a fight so I wouldn't count on your prophecy.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

ISIS has been around for several years, yet despite becoming more organised and certainly a hell of a lot richer, they have never once shown an ability to deploy anything more than the standard "technicals" with light infantry support.

Of course, now they have access to some looted Iraqi Army equipment, but that still pales in comparison to what the Jordanians can deploy, including but not limited to F-16's, Challenger tanks and some of the best special forces in the region.

EDIT: They have British Chally's not Abrams.. I was thinking of Egypt. A better tank than the Abrams anyway, if you ask me!

I just can't wait for ISIS to get to israel, I bet they could find some bonafide enemies there!
A virtual terrorist target rich environment!

originally posted by: PGTWEED
We are about to see the fulfillment of Jeremiah 49. ISIS has begun their invasion of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. The Jordanian King will be sent into exile. The terrorists will fight over his throne. The Jordanian Capital Amman will be nuked. Israel will regain land in Jordan that rightfully belongs to them.

Israel doesn't rightfully own any land. The State of Israel today is not a Holy State and has nothing to do with the Israel spoken about in the Bible.

a reply to: stumason

Yesterday, I'd have agreed with you. But based upon this thread, I did some research and there appears to be some serious cracks in the support base for the monarchy. I also learned that the US has put boots on the ground in Jordan and the populace and the Jordanian military is very unhappy about that. If this article is accurate, it appears that most Jordanians are pro-Syrian rebel and they're not happy with their Monarchy which they believe has ignored certain tribal concerns. For generations, the Jordanian monarchy has relied upon the support of certain tribes in the region who have traditionally made up the bulk of the military high command and army units. See the report at:
globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com...

Having said all that, I "think" (postulate) that the situation in Jordan may more resemble the situation in Afghanistan in that the powerful tribal leaders may seriously resent any insertion by ISIL into Jordan and that might galvanize strong, organized resistance to ISIL from the Jordanians. Put another way, Jordan isn't Iraq. Iraq is less a nation than it is a giant Bazaar, (market) at the mercantile cross roads of the Middle East and there appear to be little in the way of tribal loyalty, but rather, Iraqis are divied up along religious lines. Jordan on the other hand is a tribal "homeland". They'll fight for their homeland.

At any rate, however it turns out, as usual it appears from the report that the US is hated and hasn't got the diplomatic finesse to do much more than mess up in Jordan.

a reply to: khnum

The King will fight and will unfortunately have to flee from Amman. The Israelis will restore him to his throne and in return Israel will regain Mt Gilead and the land that rightfully belongs to them which was taken by the British and given to the Hashemite Arabs after World War 1. The prophecy is Jeremiah's. Not mine. The Prophet Jeremiah foresaw the downfall of Saddam Hussein, his capture and execution 100% accuracy.

a reply to: DarknStormy Three of the Israelite tribes have land possession in Jordan.

originally posted by: PGTWEED
a reply to: DarknStormy Three of the Israelite tribes have land possession in Jordan.

What does that have to do with modern day Secular Israel? And with that, where are you getting that information from?