What Do We Really Know About The Islamic State?

OK, let me get this house cleaning out of the way before I proceed with the topic.
There are numerous definitions of what is currently referred to by the current conquerors as The Islamic State. So here are the two other more prominently used ones. First is the one preferred by the Dear Leader, President Obama, and the state department and that is the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL. Then there is the one that much of the media uses and that is Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (which information on this is available at the link above) or ISIS.
For me, they refer to themselves as the Islamic State and that is what I will refer to them as. It is not meant to grant them legitimacy as much as to not get into any contest about names and the like.
The fundamental question of this post is germane and that is what do we know about the Islamic State?
Lets start with the numbers of men under arms for this wannabe nation.
Supposedly low estimates are about 10,000 to 15,000. In the link above it suggests that as many as 80,000 to 100,000 are under allegiance to the Islamic State.
Now look at the map below.

The red-colored areas are under control of the Islamic State. Most of the land is in Iraq, but the Islamic State began in Syria as a direct result of the civil war and divisions among the opponents of the Syrian dictator, Basaar al-Assad. Once they separated they supposedly had about 4,000 men under their black banner of death. What was once known as ISIS, then ISIL began an invasion of Iraq in June and the Iraqi army in the north fled like chickens with their heads cut off. Supposedly at the point of invasion, the forerunner to the Islamic State only had about 2,000 to 3,000 members.
Really?! An army that at the most only had 3,000 members chased an American-trained army away with little if any resistance? Very doubtful.
The fact that few people agree on the numbers of those under arms in the Islamic State is one of the reasons that we have no real clue in how to deal with these degenerates. One of the reasons that I find the higher figure to be more accurate is the willingness to throw men into battle so freely. Even if one counts religious fervor, there is no way a supposed rag-tag army could have seized so much land so quickly.
So, what is life like under the Islamic State?
Compared to Western life, it is clearly stifling and downright scary.
There is a five-part series on the news website Vice in which they have unprecedented access to life in the Islamic State. Here are links to all five episodes. I find this to be compelling that life in the Islamic State is wonderful if one is a Wahhabi-Sunni Islamic fanatic and male. Everyone else, eh not so much. Watch all five episodes and you will notice something mostly missing. Women. Women are treated not only like property but barely above how one would treat an animal. And male children are being very quickly indoctrinated into the bizarre world of Wahhabi-Sunni Islamic fanaticism.
One thing is very clear is that the Islamic State is a certifiable death cult. There is no doubt about it.
For instance, here are a couple of photos of what they do with captured Iraqi soldiers. This is not for the weak hearted.

 Yes, you are seeing correctly. Islamic State soldiers forcing captured Iraqi soldiers to lie face down in their graves as mostly masked executioners open fire and summarily murder them. No sir, these dudes are not real clued in on the Geneva Convention and the proper way to treat prisoners of war. Nah, why should they? They are infidels and they do not need to be treated as human beings. Animals are put down more humane than what these vermin do.
Pretty gross, wouldn't you say?
But no, my friends. The above is nothing.
Below is some of the Islamic State's real gruesome handiwork. Videotape beheading. I will not show any video but two photos will suffice.

Above is a sword and or a machete being placed on the throat of a victim.

And voila! Off with his head!
I will not show how far gone these degenerates are but these beheadings are not limited to men or soldiers of Iraq or Syria. Men, women and children have been beheaded. The most savageness usually is saved for Christians or other infidels such as the Yazidi. And for good measure, many heads are stuck on pikes or paraded around by children.
And leave it to these guys to bring back an oldie but a goo die.
Crucifixion.
Yes, these vermin are really low. But there is a somewhat decent side to these folks. Most of the crucifixions are done after people are killed. But every now and then, one just gets nailed to a cross and left to die.
As I said, these fanatics are a roving cult of death. And they are teaching a potential whole generation of youth the way of the sword.
So, life in the Islamic State is harsh and very primitive. The only things modern these cretins like are their guns, pickup trucks and video cameras to show the world their handiwork.
But its what we are not being told that should be worrisome.
To this writing, we still do not have a real number of the force that we, the United States, could be dealing with. It can be as low as 10,000 (doubtful) to as much as 100,000 (more probable). We do not really know all the weapons seized in their march through Iraq. If you watch part one of the Vice report from the Islamic State, they paraded at least a large missile, tanks and armored personnel carriers.
And here is something to make you sleep well tonight.
Islamic State forces seized the al-Taqba air base on August 24 and yes, they captured Syrian fighter planes. And today, they showed off their conquered prize: fighter planes.
Now we have been assured that the Islamic State forces are not all that big. That is proving false. We are being assured that they are spread thin and can't keep control of all they have. Again, this is false as they continue to, if nothing else, tighten their grip on what they do control and seem to be fighting hard to gain more land and people. And we are being assured that while they may have these fighter planes, they probably can't fly them. I don't think that is reassuring. Does anyone really think that they do not have at least some men in their ranks that have the capability to fly fighter planes? I am sure that among 10,000 to 100,000 men, at least one can fly a fighter plane. And if one can, surely more can as well.
Keep this in mind.
Tomorrow is the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York City, Shanksville, Pennsylvania and Washington, D. C.
Does the Islamic State have a special surprise for the United States?
And back to the original question.
With all that we have been wrong about the Islamic State, what do we really know about the Islamic State?

J. P. Blecksmith Did Not Die To See Iraq End Up Like This

J. P. Blecksmith was the first United States officer killed in the Battle of Fallujah, Iraq in 2004 and his family were members of my church, the Church Of Our Saviour, in San Gabriel, California.
Mr. Blecksmith was a son of the parish and was a marine corp 2nd lieutenant who came from an upper-middle class and long list of warriors family in San Marino, California. Mr. Blecksmith was a volunteer in the marine corps. No, he was not some poor, underprivileged kid from the wrong side of the tracks that joined the armed forces because he had no future, to paraphrase then Democrat presidential candidate and current secretary of state, John Kerry. He was in the marine corps and was doing his duty in Operation Enduring Freedom in liberating Iraq from the clutches of Saddam Hussein.
One does not know how he felt about all of the politics surrounding the whole Iraq theatre in the War Against Islamofacist Terror. He was a soldier. He did his job and his duty. And as all warriors fear, he gave his life for the cause.
And today we read and see that all Mr. Blecksmith and the thousands of brave soldiers, seamen, air force fighters, and marines is falling apart at breakneck speed.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (Syria) has rearmed and with breakneck speed and has captured huge swaths of Iraqi territory and the major cities of Mosul and Tikrit, the hometown of the dictator, Hussein. And they have effective control of the cities of Rahmadi and yes, Fallujah. And they are setting their sights on Baghdad.
The worst part is that the ISIS has gained all of this land while also being protagonists in the Syria civil war. This timeline explains how this group was defeated and ended up now on the march. It appears that the turning point was in July, 2013 when they were able to seize the infamous Abu Gharib prison and break out 500 fellow militants. That ISIS was able to infiltrate the supposedly toughest of Iraqi prisons inside Baghdad should have been a bad sign.
Now in territory controlled by ISIS, they are imposing the ever so judicious Sharia law in such a way that I am certain the Taliban is taking notes for when they regain power in Afghanistan. As the black flag of radical Islam is planted, such wonderful things as forcing all Islamics to go to the mosque and pray five times a day. Whether they want to or not. Of course no alcohol, no smoking and no drugs. Well, one of the three may not be a bad idea. But not in the radical Islamic way. And no public gatherings that are not approved by the ISIS forces. And in its weird interpretation of Islam, they will destroy all shrines, graveyards and monuments. Remember, that is what the former Taliban rulers of Afghanistan did to Buddhist shrines by blowing them up before the 9/11 terror attacks. Of course, the ladies are going to be protected by being forced to dress "modestly", re: burkas or similar restrictive clothing.
One other aspect of all of this is that the ISIS are Sunni Islamics while the government and armed forces are primarily Shia Islamic. And we now read and see that Iran is going to get involved by supporting the corrupt government of al-Maliki going so far as threatening military involvement.
The fundamental reason that this is happening is because it is the fault of the United States and directly the fault of the Dear Leader, President Obama.
Because it has been all about politics.
Remember during the 2008 presidential campaign, then Sen. Messiah Barack kept lying telling potential voters that the Iraq theatre was not one that was necessary in the WAIT. Afghanistan, that was the theatre we should have been in all the way and Iraq should have been left alone. It was kind of cute by a half for he sounded like a hawk in Afghanistan and a dove to his left-wing Democrat base on Iraq. But because the 2008 election was really not about Iraq or the overall WAIT, it sounded pretty good to a war-weary public. The United States would draw down in Iraq and leave a token force and concentrate on vanquishing the enemies in Afghanistan.
Well, negotiations broke down over how many and what the role would be of the token American forces that would remain in Iraq beyond 2011. The breakdown that led to total American military withdrawal was how American forces would or would not be granted immunity from the Iraqi government and be subject to it's laws.
Had we extended negotiations on that, we could have had a force of anywhere from 30,000 to 70,000. The 30,000 would be more than enough to continue to be a presence and train the officer corp and the regular forces.
But for Team Obama, they would rather not have any extended negotiations for if that happened and a deal could have been worked out, there would still be a strong American military presence today.
Basically it would be forces like the forces that we had in West Germany after World War II. Oh, and we still do, even though there is no threat of a Nazi resurgence that was feared in the days after the formal end of hostilities. Or the decades-long threat of communist East Germany and their patrons, the former Soviet Union that is no more.
If there was any military presence in Iraq, Team Obama would have broken a major 2008 campaign foreign policy promise. For they did not close down the Guantanamo prison where many of the worst of the worst terrorists have been and are still being held. They had to get totally out of Iraq. And thus in November, 2011, the last troops came home. And of course Team Obama used it as fulfilling a promise to be out of Iraq. Team Obama rode that to reelection.
Remember, it took years for the United States and its World War II allies to train a purely defense force in West Germany, Italy and Japan but forces did not place any false timeline for it to happen and pull armed forces out of these three nations. Again, United States forces are in all three nations. Yes, the numbers are reduced dramatically, but they are still there.
But Iraq, well when the public, fed by the Democrat party left-wing propaganda, tired of the seemingly endless military action essentially gave up. the Dear Leader, President Obama and his allies wanted to end all military action in the WAIT. They wanted to return to the pre 9/11 mindset that all this terrorism is but a legal issue and all terrorists would be prosecuted in American courts and afforded the same rights and privileges as American citizens. If convicted, they would be jailed in American prisons. Team Obama would address, as they saw it, the root causes of such terror and terrorist groups.
But, as noted, Team Obama ended up keeping Guantanamo open. Yes, they made a grave mistake in trading five former Afghan Taliban for one American soldier, and it is probably using this to empty Guantanamo any way they can. And they did not try the chief architect in the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, in a civilian court in New York City as the attorney general, Eric Holder, wanted to. He was tried in a military court.
So in a sense, reality smacked the collective faces of Team Obama.
But in Iraq, that did not happen. And yes, the United States is reaping what it sowed.
And yup, forces of genuine evil are on the march to Baghdad and a goal of radical Islam may come true.
The rebirth of the medieval caliphate.
And it is unfolding right before our collective eyes.
For the most part, thanks to Team Obama and wanting us to ignore the Mideast and the descent to radical Islamic chaos, we in the United States don't seem to care. I mean, if it gets in the way of the latest fauxtrage of the week, we can't be bothered.
Peace at any price is a false peace for eventually those who sue for peace end up having to fight war with enemies that do not value peace.
I don't believe that J. P. Blecksmith or any of the 4,485 other American troops that died in Iraq in Operation Enduring Freedom did so to see what is happening today. The total disintegration of Iraq into a caliphate state.