# So.... \*IS\* ISIS a state? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 29, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-isis-a-state/732907 "2015-09-29T02:06:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 5
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2015, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-isis-a-state/732907/5 "2015-09-29T04:55:58Z")
There’s a New York Review of Books article I quoted in another thread which discusses their support for local services. A later article in that journal questioned that characterization. > [@How did ISIS defeat the Iraqi army?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-did-isis-defeat-the-iraqi-army/711932/19): > > Recall that ISIS rules certain regions of Syria. They collect taxes. They collect utility charges. The Assad regime (who run Syria) let them do that so they can point to a Big Bad: see? Stick with us: the other choice is _those guys_. ISIS also controls certain oil regions in Syria, and now Iraq. They regulate the price and quality of goods in their territory. > > So the Iraqi Army was going up against something like governmental army. That’s not to say that they were invincible: the Kurds have held them off on the border of Turkey for a while. But ISIS isn’t a guerilla army; they are led by some of Saddam’s old generals for instance. > [How ISIS Rules | Sarah Birke | The New York Review of Books](http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/feb/05/how-isis-rules/) How ISIS was formed: > [@ISIS needs to be destroyed](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/isis-needs-to-be-destroyed/712801/273): > > A cache of documents were found in a ISIS Syrian safe house, whose resident was killed in a firefight. They discuss the coalition between Islamicists and Iraqi military men that makes up ISIS. > > The new reveal is that ISIS was created by Saddam’s former men. They provided military strategy. They chose the guy who would be the self-proclaimed caliph. They had deep ties to Syrian intelligence, which allowed them to form an uneasy partnership with Assad’s regime, where they would focus their efforts on common enemies. > > They had knowledge of running a totalitarian state: that’s no small thing. The generals’ goal was to use ISIS as a method of taking over Iraq and re-establishing the old regime. > The US was persuaded to invade Iraq on the basis of alleged ties between Saddam and Islamicists: those allegations were lies. > > [INDENT]"But the invasion made this falsehood true… One of America’s first decisions on taking Iraq-- a terrible mistake that has halted the region ever sense-- was to disband Iraq’s enormous army, leaving its officers and soldiers with no income… “bitter and unemployed”. [/INDENT] > They would later form the nucleus of ISIS. [The secret plot behind the creation of ISIS | Vox](http://www.vox.com/2015/4/20/8451627/isis-iraq-saddam) --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-isis-a-state/732907)._