As ISIS has been titled as a serious national threat by the U.S government, the vicious battle against ISIS continues. (Pianin, E, September 4 2014) This time, the victims of war is not only soldiers nor civilians. It is the historical artifacts. In this essay, the writer would like to assess how ISIS finances their ultimate goal to build an Islamic state and the consequences they face from the opposing forces.
As we have known, ISIS goal is to build an Islamic state by invading surrounding states. In order to achieve this goal, ISIS must have a strong financial power. (Wood, G., February 15 2015) ISIS has 3 major contributors for their financial support for war effort, which are; Extortion, Oil, and illicit lootings. Extortion plays a great part in ISIS financial cash flow. ISIS way of extortion is to raise the tax exponentially and physically punish the civilians if they refuse to cooperate. This policy has been proven very effective. Before ISIS has captured Mosul, this infamous terrorist group has an earning of over $12 million U.S dollars. After the capture, the earning has multiplied and has been added to ISIS war effort. (Lister, C, October 24 2014) The fact that ISIS has captured one of the major cities of Iraq has angered many sides, resulting in retaliation from the anti-ISIS forces. A force of 30,000 anti-ISIS fighters has been dispatched to launch a large scale offensive action to recapture the cities. This Iraqi-led assault that is backed up by US has successfully recaptured several surrounding cities of Mosul which will be used as a military outpost to launch an offensive military action in order to recapture Mosul. .
As stated in the preceding paragraph, oil also plays a major part in funding ISIS for their war effort. According to recent report by The Independent, with the funding that they get from oil donors, they have been able to fund and arm more than 100,000 army personnel.
