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of a jihadi state spanning northern Iraq and Syria, run by a movement a hundred times bigger and much better organized than the al-Qaeda of Osama bin Laden. The war on terror for which civil liberties have been curtailed and hundreds of billions of dollars spent has failed miserably. The belief that ISIS is interested only in “Muslim against Muslim” struggles is another instance of wishful thinking: ISIS has shown it will fight anybody who does not adhere to its bigoted, puritanical, and violent variant of Islam. Where ISIS differs from al-Qaeda is that it is a well-run military organization that is very careful in choosing its targets and the optimum moment to attack them.
    Many in Baghdad hoped the excesses of ISIS—for example, blowing up mosques it deems shrines, like that of Younis (Jonah) in Mosul—will alienate the Sunnis. In the long term they may do just that as ISIS imposes its primeval religious and social norms throughout its territory. It is worth relating one incident from an ISIS-held area which illustrates the popular mood. The witness, a woman, relates:
    Just this evening, with my old mom, I went out for shopping and buying medicines in my car with a thin cloth showing my eyes only. What can I do? Last week, a woman was standing beside a kiosk, and uncovered her face drinking a bottle of water. One of them [ISIS] approached her and hit her on the head with a thick stick. He didn’t recognize that her husband was close to her. Her husband beat him up and he ran away shooting randomly into the sky as the people, in sympathy, chased him to share in beating him. This is just one story of the brutality we are living.
    In a land of heavy smokers, bonfires of cigarettes arranged by ISIS are not popular. But opposing ISIS is very dangerous and, for all its brutality, it has brought victory to a crushed and persecuted Sunni community. Even those Sunnis in Mosul who do not like it are fearful of the return of a vengeful Shia-dominated Iraqi government. So far Baghdad’s response to its defeat has been to bomb Mosul and Tikrit randomly, leaving local people in no doubt about its indifference to their welfare or survival. The fear will not change even with Maliki replaced by a more conciliatory prime minister. A Sunni in Mosul, writing just after a missile fired by government forces had exploded in the city, told me: “Maliki’s forces have already demolished the University of Tikrit. It has become havoc and rubble like all the city. If Maliki reaches us in Mosul he will kill its people or turn theminto refugees. Pray for us.” Such views are common, and make it less likely that Sunnis will rise up in opposition to ISIS and its caliphate. A new and terrifying state has been born that will not easily disappear.

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Jihadis on the March
    A video posted in the spring of 2014 by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS—formerly al-Qaeda in Iraq) shows foreign jihadis, most likely somewhere in Syria, burning their passports to demonstrate a permanent commitment to jihad. The film, which is professionally made, is sobering to watch for anybody who imagines that the ongoing war in Syria can be contained. It shows rather how the conflict in the great swath of territory between the Tigris River and the Mediterranean coast is starting to convulse the entire region.
    You can tell by the covers of the passports being burned that most of them are Saudi, which are grassgreen, or Jordanian, which are dark blue, though many other nationalities are represented in the group. As each man rips up his passport and throws it into the flames, he makes a declaration of faith, a promise to fight against the ruler of the country from which he comes. A Canadian makes a short speech in English and, before switching to Arabic, says: “[This] is a message to Canada and all American powers. We are coming and we will destroy you.” A Jordanian says: “I say to the tyrant of Jordan: we are the descendants of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi [the