The tide may be turning against ISIS

ISIS is the wealthiest and best-armed terrorist group of all time, and it uses tactics that even al Qaeda finds disgusting, according to journalist Joby Warrick.

Warrick's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS," tracks the origins of ISIS by examining five of the terrorist group's leaders, the most important being its founder, Abu Musab al-ZarqawiM.

Zarqawi was violent from a young age and excelled at killing when he joined the Arab army fighting the Afghan communist government in the 80s, Warrick said. "He's a ferocious fighter, and he has this religious fervor that's being pumped up as well because he's learning at the feet of a generation of Islamist radicals led by Osama bin Laden."

After the war ended Zarqawi went to live in Jordan and began seeking out symbols of western culture to attack in order to keep the jihad going. It was during this time Zarqawi was arrested, along with many other political prisoners. In this setting "the prison becomes a kind of jihadi university and Zarqawi the tough guy ... starts to distinguish himself as a charismatic and capable leader," Warrick said.

After he was released Zarqawi decided to return to Afghanistan to seek out Osama bin Laden once again.

"Interestingly, bin Laden wants nothing to do with him," Warrick said. "Because even at his young age Zarqawi is considered too much of a hard head, too much of a wild card even for the mastermind of 9/11."

After being denied membership, Zarqawi started his own camp, with his own ideas of what jihad should look like.

"He comes to understand that no bombing, no shooting, no usual act of terrorism can summon up the kind of visceral dread as watching a person being killed in a brutal way on the internet," Warrick said.

Using social media Zarqawi spread videos of beheadings and other acts of violence, along with messages to fellow jihadists to join his cause — making up the ideology as he went along.

"He's not really constrained by the Quran, he doesn't really care what proper Islam is," Warrick said. "He does his own thing and he justifies it after the fact."

The U.S. eventually found and killed Zarqawi in 2006 — and ISIS, for a short time, appeared to be defeated. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who joined Zarqawi's group as a religious advisor, revived the movement in 2010 when U.S. troops began pulling out of Iraq.

Baghdadi continues to lead ISIS today — using his knowledge of the Islamic religion to manipulate its messages in an attempt to justify their actions, harnessing social media, must like his predecessor, to spread his reach.

Tides are starting to turn against ISIS

"We're seeing more and more participation by Sunni Arabs in the battle," he said. "Most of the successes we're seeing in Mosul right now are being won by Iraqi troops."

A message of tolerance is spreading in the Islamic community and the battle for public opinion is slowly shifting against ISIS.

The U.S. has a role to play as well.

"We have to help the countries that are on the front lines deal with a problem that's beginning to take them down," Warrick said of the strain put on countries hosting refugee camps. "If we don't, systems fail and also you'll have essentially more nests for recruitment and for breeding terrorism and other bad things to come."

Warrick spoke December 6, 2016 at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas.

To listen to the speech, click the audio player above.

Further reading

• Guled Omar: The path to ISIS and the story you haven't heard

• Intelligence Squared debate: ISIS must be defeated

• More from MPR News Presents

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