The two articles I chose to analyze were Yemen’s Civil War Forges Alliance Between al-Qaeda and ISIS and Sadam’s Ex-Officer: We’ve Played Key Role In Helping Militants.

The first article talks about the chaos that is the Yemen civil war. With the legal government in shambles, there is a power vacuum occurring much like that in Libya and Syria. This power vacuum has allowed militant groups like ISIS to come in and fight for a considerable amount of power. This power will now be amplified by the so-called “unholy” alliance between ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliate, AQAP.  Once sworn enemies are now working together against the rebel Houthis and could soon take over Yemen. The second article was about Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a former Iraqi officer under Hussein. In this article, al-Douri claims that ISIS is only a small player in the events that have occurred in Iraq and possibly every where else in the region. There are apparently five major groups operating in the region of which ISIS is not the major player. The major player is Nashqbandi, the group that al-Douri heads. Now this is a bold claim, given the fact that ISIS is in the headlines these days.

These two articles are related in the sense that in one, ISIS is the major player operating in the area, and in one they’re not. These findings that Hussein is still influencing events in the middle east are astounding. Is ISIS just a puppet in the grand scheme of an evil architect? Quite possibly. ISIS’ core group of intelligence officers are almost all former Iraqi officers under Hussein. And now, to learn that ISIS is only one of five forces in the area, I don’t know what to think. Is it all just one big charade? One thing is confirmed for me, ISIS are not true believers and are the true infidels. Those who are sacrificing themselves in the name of freedom and who fight against imperialist are the true believers. Hussein’s officer are only in it for the power and are using religion as a driving force to bring people together.