Pentagon Foresaw Emergence of the Islamic State

The Pentagon foresaw the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria as early as three years ago.

A newly declassified Pentagon report obtained by Washington, D.C., law firm Judicial Watch revealed that the U.S.-led strategy in Syria contributed directly to the rise of the Islamic State in Washington’s efforts to dislodge the regime of Syria’s Bashar Assad.

The report is dated August 2012, and it states that the “major forces driving the insurgency in Syria” comprise “the Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood and [al Qaeda in Iraq]”—the group that became the Islamic State.