US News:
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While it is true that there are many former Baathist regime elements within the Islamic State group, the group's organization and ambitions bear little resemblance to the Saddam-era Baathist state. Ironically, the Islamic State group's organization and aims much more closely resemble its most bitter rival in the Sunni Arab world: al-Qaida. The Islamic State group derived both its blueprint for building an Islamic state and its Salafi-jihadist ideology from al-Qaida, not from Iraqi Baathists associated with Saddam Hussein's former regime.
The group that evolved into the Islamic State group was formed, trained and indoctrinated in al-Qaida-sponsored training camps in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. There, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, founded a Salafi-jihadist organization named Jamaat Tawid Wal-Jihad. Zarqawi's group moved to Iraq in 2002 and became al-Qaida's official arm in Iraq in 2004. The internal documents of both core al-Qaida and al-Qaida in Iraq show that their goal was to establish an Islamic state. These documents also show that al-Qaida's organizational principles were directly handed down to the Islamic State group.
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They are just al Qaeda in Iraq with a new name. That is why many think Obama does not need a new authorization for the use of force. The old one is still effective.
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