Reddit reviews Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

Not OP, but I asked the same question years ago and I compiled this list:

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1. This is the best book on the subject that I've read. It is as fair to both sides as one can be. In fact, I came away with a better understanding of how and why the Palestinians feel the way that they do after reading the book.
   
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2. The Arab Spring. This is a great journey through all of the countries affected by The Arab Spring. It helps understand where we are now.
   
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3. The Prize. Technically, it is the history of the oil industry. As you should expect, it covers a lot of ME history, too.
   
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4. Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS This book helps you understand how radical ISIS really is compared to AQ.
   
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5. Michael Oren has two good books: Six Days of War and Power, Faith, and Fantasy. Despite Oren's affiliation with Israel, his books are fair and interesting reads.
   
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   A book on the fall of the Ottoman Empire is another good place to start. I have not read this one yet. I've heard that it is a good read.
   
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Here what I've picked up
On War by Clausewitz

MCDP 1 Warfighting

FMFRP 12-18 Mao Tse-tung on Guerrilla Warfare

FMFRP 12-13 Maneuver in War

On Grand Strategy

The Art of War by Baron De Jomini

Just and Unjust Wars (apparently it's on the Commandant's reading list too)

Soviet Military Operational Art: In Pursuit of Deep Battle

Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla

Seapower: A Guide for the Twenty-First Century

The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan

Blitzkrieg to Desert Storm: The Evolution of Operational Warfare

Why Air Forces Fail: The Anatomy of Defeat

Deep Maneuver: Historical Case Studies of Maneuver in Large-Scale Combat Operations (Volume 5)

JP-1 Doctrine for the Armed Forces of the United States

DoD Law of War Manual

The Soviet Army: Operations and Tactics

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

Napoleonic Warfare: The Operational Art of the Great Campaigns

The Air Force Way of War: U.S. Tactics and Training after Vietnam

Strategy: A History

LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media

The Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World

MCTP 3-01C Machine Guns and Machine Gun Gunnery

Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysis

The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 1: Invasion – Insurgency – Civil War, 2003-2006

The U.S. Army in the Iraq War – Volume 2: Surge and Withdrawal, 2007-2011

Illusions of Victory: The Anbar Awakening and the Rise of the Islamic State

Concrete Hell: Urban Warfare From Stalingrad to Iraq

The American Way of War: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy

Supreme Command: Soldiers, Statesmen, and Leadership in Wartime

This is all I can name off the top of my head right now

That is not an accurate statement. For one, Saddam was a Sunni a Sunnis in general curried great favor under that regime. Once we went in and toppled the Baathist party, Shia's started to dominate the interim government. That in part FUELED the Islamic State uprising.

We very well could have gotten rid of Saddam and prevented the scale of the insurgency had we not done two fatal errors - The Interim Governor of Iraq (U.S. Paul Bremer) disbanded the ENTIRE Iraqi military and government workers. You essentially had an entire military (4th largest in the world at the time) and an entire working government worth of trained/educated folks completely unemployed, no pensions, no benefits - nada.

There was no indigenous fighting or government force left to help quell the obvious power vacuum that was left. A viable fighting force was one of the keys behind our initial and unprecedented success in Afghanistan only a year and a half earlier. Around 400-500 intelligence and Special Operations personnel in conjunction with the Northern Alliance toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan shortly after 9-11. We screwed the pooch by not providing and facilitating the other tools of statescraft to flourish after due to Iraq brewing on the horizon.

Many insurgent groups sprang up around this time (Circa 2004-2007 specifically) to include the sunni AQI which then morphed into ISIS. Conversely though, a young savey thug Jordanian buy the name of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi saw opportunity and gave rise to the sectarian (sunni vs shia) violence that swept across the region like wild fire with the bombing of the Golden Mosque in 2006.

Shia's were absolutely NOT part of AQI or ISIS.

[Paul Bremer Source] (https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/1mmjpe/how_do_i_make_text_a_link/)

Rise of ISIS Source

[Shia Golden Mosque Bombing Source] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_al-Askari_mosque_bombing)

Well you can start by thanking the United States for destabilizing the entire region when they invaded Iraq and created a breeding ground for chaos.

If you're actually interested in this subject, I'd recommend this book:

https://www.amazon.ca/Black-Flags-Rise-Joby-Warrick/dp/0804168938

Really easy and thorough read on how ISIS came to be and the political context in which they exist(ed).

What? The book I cited is a work with it's own sources. The articles you are posting do not refute any point made or to be made. Call a sourced book a meme all you want, but you're wrong.

 

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS https://www.amazon.com/dp/0804168938/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_f4oAzbBAQ37H4

On the note of Muslims, I learned a lot from this book below. It's a Pulitzer Prize winner and contains information that was collected directly from the military who served there.

To say all Muslims are the same is not true. There are Sunnis, Shiites, and various jihadist groups in nearly a dozen countries. A majority of them do not believe in Sharia Law. Some of these people are the reason we gathered the intelligence to kill Osama Bin Ladin, Zarqawi, and many others.

The situation in the middle east is horrifying, and we cannot afford to denounce them all as terrible people. We have allies there who help us tremendously.

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Flags-Rise-Joby-Warrick/dp/0804168938/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478742702&sr=8-1&keywords=black+flags