According To The New York Times The Crisis In Iraq Was Years In The Making

Rebels’ Fast Strike In Iraq Was Years In The Making -- New York Times

ERBIL, Iraq — When Islamic militants rampaged through the Iraqi city of Mosul last week, robbing banks of hundreds of millions of dollars, opening the gates of prisons and burning army vehicles, some residents greeted them as if they were liberators and threw rocks at retreating Iraqi soldiers.

It took only two days, though, for the fighters of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria to issue edicts laying out the harsh terms of Islamic law under which they would govern, and singling out some police officers and government workers for summary execution.

With just a few thousand fighters, the group’s lightning sweep into Mosul and farther south appeared to catch many Iraqi and American officials by surprise. But the gains were actually the realization of a yearslong strategy of state-building that the group itself promoted publicly.

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My Comment: The New York Times only wants to focus only on the past ten years .... but truth be told .... this is a conflict that goes back centuries. The only difference between then and now is that we can see it as it is happening 24/7 and almost instantaneously via through social media or live streams.