DAESH/ISIS didn't form in the civil war; they renamed themselves that, but they already existed as al-Qaida in Iraq. A native east-Syrian Islamist insurgency wo

DAESH/ISIS didn't form in the civil war; they renamed themselves that, but they already existed as al-Qaida in Iraq. A native east-Syrian Islamist insurgency would probably have been more benign; they certainly wouldn't have had eight years of war with the US to refine their tactics, write The Management of Savagery, develop a webzine, and so on.