Understanding the Threat Posed by ISIS

[TwilightGardener]

5. "What makes them worse than Osama Bin Laden/AQ?"

Did AQ ever carve and hold a country the size of what ISIS has now? With oil revenues and western weaponry? The closest analogy is the Taliban, who sheltered AQ, but the Taliban itself was mostly bent on governing/controlling Afghanistan, they didn't have much grander ambitions and weren't really considered a terror organization. Also, ISIS kind of knows all our tricks, because the core founders were Iraqi AQ/Baathist officers and fought us for years there. Does anyone believe they wouldn't launch terror attacks on western targets once they were able to consolidate and hold their gains? I believe they held off because they didn't want to draw us into battle until they were ready--but they overran Mosul and went after the Yazidis, and that was their bad. I do not believe the administration is trying to fear-monger. Hagel's been concerned and warning about ISIS for some time, for example, and there are something like a hundred American passport holders that are known to be in Syria doing God knows what. Probably not "relief work". Great Britain estimates they have 500 citizens fighting for ISIS in Syria. What are we supposed to do with these people?