Blowback: Vijay Prashad on How Islamic State Grew Out of U.S Invasion of Iraq, Destruction of Nation | Democracy Now!
"The Islamic State was born in 2006. It’s not yesterday’s creation. This was a product of the Iraq War," explains Vijay Prashad today.
Militants from Islamic State stormed an air base in northeast Syria on
Sunday, capturing it from government forces. Fighters from Islamic State
have seized three Syrian military bases in the area in recent weeks.
This comes as the Pentagon considers expanding its airstrikes against
Islamic State in Iraq to include targets inside Syria. Meanwhile,
another journalist who had been kidnapped in Syria, Peter Theo Curtis,
has been freed after two years in captivity by the Nusra Front — another
militant group in Syria. Calls have been growing for the United States
to attack Syria since Islamic State posted video showing the kidnapped
American journalist James Foley being beheaded. Foley was captured in
Syria in 2012. Meanwhile in Iraq, officials say suicide bomber targeted a
Shiite mosque in Baghdad today, killing at least 12 people. We speak to
Vijay Prashad, professor of international studies at Trinity College.
He is the author of several books, including "Arab Spring, Libyan
Winter" and, most recently, "The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of
the Global South."
