Hell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISIS Page #5

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They find alternative

sources of income.

And so now, they just

start to loot at will.

Doctor al-azm:
The islamic

state institutionalized the

Process of looting.

They made it

part of the state.

Doctor al-azm:
As the looting

process became more and more

Sophisticated, they would

issue permits to allow people

To bring in heavy machinery.

They established

auctions in which to sell

These looted items.

Colonel bogdanos: History be

damned, get me more material,

More canay-formed

tablets, more cylinder seals.

More anything.

More is just more.

More means more money.

From syria alone,

isis was making

Tens of millions of dollars.

While tens of millions of

dollars may not mean much to

You, how much

does an ied cost?

How much is

a 7.62 mm bullets?

How much do 50 of

those bullets go for?

How much does an ak-47 cost?

How much is an rpg?

How many rpgs can you

buy with a million dollars?

Doctor al-azm:
Isis

sees cultural heritage as

An exploitable resource.

And so for them, they

will loot what they can sell,

But one of the primary

uses has been propaganda.

Colonel bogdanos: Once you

destroy the cultural heritage

Of a people, you are

in effect attacking and

Destroying their

cultural identity.

Once you destroy

their cultural identity,

It's but a short step

to destroy and eradicate

The people themselves.

Reporter:
Tens of thousands

of people from the yazidi

Religious minority fled to

this mountain ridge to escape

Isis militants who

recently captured the

Nearby town of sinjar.

Christoph reuter: The kurdish

regional government made it a

Huge international outcry

that we have tens of thousands

Of yazidis thirsty and starved

to death on this mountain.

It was like you are touched,

the biblical maze of masada.

People on the

mountain, 50 degrees,

In hot summer without water,

and all the jihadists sitting

Around the mountains

waiting to kill everybody.

You had old conflicts, old

hatreds between the yazidis

From sinjar and the sunni's

ultra-loyalists to saddam.

They were keen to make clear

that this area will never be

Inhabited by yazidis again.

.

Sebastian junger: One of their

slogans is "we the jihadists,

We love death more than

you in the west love life."

A lot of people think that that

means that they're psychotic.

Only crazy people

would act like that.

But there is no way to

fight people who frame their

Struggle in those terms

without also taking into

Account some kind of

social and historical justice.

President obama:
Our

objective is clear.

We will degrade and ultimately

destroy isil through a

Comprehensive and sustained

counterterrorism strategy.

Christoph reuter: Isis had

not anticipated this reaction

Because when two months

prior, they had overrun mosul.

Obama's reaction was basically,

"oh, we should do

something about it."

But nothing happened.

Once the americans started

to attack the islamic state,

Isis needed to react somehow.

So it was a

message for the u.S.

Isis militant:
We are

willing to lay down our blood

On this soil.

So try, try to come.

I will kill every

single soldier, bismillah.

We will chop off the

heads of the americans,

Chop off the heads of the

french, chop off the heads of.

Sebastian junger: Every war

is a form of dialogue between

The warring parties

and all actions are a

Form of communication.

When president obama

decided to bomb isis forces,

He was communicating to isis

that we were not gonna stand

By and let anything happen.

And isis needed to be

communicating to the west that

They could not be messed with.

Isis member:
Today,

your military air force is

Attacking us daily in iraq.

So any attempts by you, obama,

to deny the muslims their

Rights of living in safety

under the islamic caliphate

Will result in the

bloodshed of your people.

Sebastian junger: As a result,

isis cut off james foley's head.

That didn't stop the bombing,

so they kept cutting off heads

And we kept bombing.

Isis member:
I'm back,

obama, because of your arrogant

Foreign policy

towards the islamic state.

You, obama, have yet

again, for your actions,

Killed yet another

american citizen.

David cameron:
We will

stick to the very clear

Strategy that we have.

To help make sure the

kurds get the arms they need

To fight off, uh, these

brutal, uh, extremist militants.

Isis member:
This british man

has to pay the price for your

Promise, cameron, to

arm the peshmerga against

The islamic state.

Your evil alliance with

america will only accelerate

Your destruction.

Peter bergen:
The long-term

prognosis of isis is not great

Because they made

a world of enemies.

That is not a

winning strategy.

Napoleon was the greatest

general of the modern era but

So everybody, then,

coalesced to get rid of him.

Isis is making

the same mistake.

Peter bergen:
They're already

suffering the consequences.

They keep losing territory.

Basically the whole world

is ganged up against them.

Dennis ross:
Putin didn't

go into syria to fight isis.

If that was the case,

he would've fought isis.

80% of the bombing

was on non-isis targets.

Senator mccain:
I see what

looks like the future now and

That is a very influential

russia with a bashar assad

That is able to at least

control the areas of syria

That are of most

importance to him.

Robin yassin kassab: The assad

regime and lately russia, too,

Have been bombing not just

militia formations on the

Ground, they've been bombing

bakeries, schools, hospitals.

Because the people can't

defend themselves from this

Aerial bombardment,

it's absolute hell on earth.

Assad wants those in the

middle to be eliminated so the

Choice is either him or isis.

Peter bergen:
The airstrikes

are killing about a thousand

Isis members every month,

and ratcheting down the oil,

And getting rid of

some of their money.

That is really

going to impact them.

If you control several

million people and you're

Taxing them for pretty

much everything they do.

That's all the money.

So every time

they lose a big city which is

That's several hundred

thousand people they can't tax.

Alex jordanov:
This new form

of terrorism was introduced by

Al-qaeda's ideologue

abu musab al-suri.

In his writings where he calls

for a form of low cost terror,

Many terror acts all over the

place conducted by the people

That actually live there.

Reporter:
San

bernardino, california

Mass casualty situation.

A terror attack in

the french city of nice.

At least 80 people.

The 17-year-old

used an axe and knife

A lone gunman called 911

to pledge allegiance to isis.

Woman:
Oh my god.

General flynn:
This

is what terrorists do.

They instill fear

in societies.

If you instill

fear in a society,

It comes at a big cost.

With some of the, you know,

some of the comments that are

Being made about various,

Parts of our society

and what to do about them.

You know, the whole

issue of immigration is a big,

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