Hawks Exaggerate Islamic State Threat to the US (Boston Globe)

August 17, 2014

In an opinion piece in the Boston Globe, Dickey Center Director Daniel Benjamin cautions that politicians in Washington and the press are exaggerating the direct threat to the United States from the group calling itself the Islamic State, or ISIS. 

"The danger to Iraq and its neighbors is real. The Islamic State has shown itself to be a formidable insurgency. Its focus is on ripping apart Iraq and Syria, sowing sectarian conflict, and creating in its midst a new jihadist state or caliphate . . .  But, for now, it’s important to understand that even if marauding operatives in Land Cruisers may be humiliating Iraq’s hollowed-out military, that doesn’t mean they have genuine terrorist skills," Benjamin writes.

Read the entire article in the Boston Globe.