Inside the Mind of ISIS Understanding Its Goals and Ideology to Better Protect the Homeland

One of ISIS's key strengths is the large number of recruits that they are able to pull in. Despite the heavy losses inflicted on ISIS by coalition forces, the number of ISIS fighters on the ground in Iraq and Syria remains pretty much the same thanks to a stream of new recruits flowing into the region. ISIS also appears to have a significant online army that grows daily, and these "virtual" soldiers may never set foot in the territory that ISIS controls, but they are waging an aggressive social media campaign that calls on people to do the group's bidding from thousands of miles away. These battlefield recruits and online supporters are attracted not only to ISIS's ideology, but also to its image. According to the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) report, the progression and the growth of terrorism is stark. In 2012, the number of attacks reported by the State Department was 6,771. In 2014, the number of attacks had grown to 16,800 worldwide, 2.5 times greater than 2 years earlier. In 2012 there were 11,000 individuals killed in terrorist attacks. In 2014, there were 43,500, almost a fourfold increase. The battle against ISIS is a war of words and ideas as much as it is a war of military power and action. It is important that not only to defeat ISIS on the battlefield, but also to counter their hateful message. The battle also is not against a religion. It is against ISIS, a group of murderers who kill Muslims, Jews, Christians alike. They have no regard for human life. The estimated 30,000 ISIS fighters have nothing to do with the 1.5 billion Muslim men and women who peacefully practice their religion around the world.