Imagine that you're a young Iraqi or Syrian Muslim. A shift in military fortunes, a little cash-some of these people could be on our side next. Others might switch sides depending on whom they think at the moment has the best chance of toppling Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad. Some of these experienced fighters are attracted by ISIS' hard-core ideology and by its sheer ruthlessness. DEFECTORS FROM SYRIAN REBEL GROUPS, such as the Free Syrian Army. If things go bad and they see alternatives, it's doubtful that many will hang in to the bitter end with ISIS. The vets put up with an excess of Islamist zeal-and ISIS looks the other way from the vets' 'lack of piety.' They need each other.

It's a marriage of convenience, not conviction. An important thing to understand here is that few of these Hussein-era veterans share the extreme religious views of the ideologues who run ISIS. These veterans have provided ISIS seasoned military and organizational expertise. Many of them, stinging from the shame of their rapid defeat, were only too happy to join ISIS, which gave them employment, a renewed sense of honor, and a way to continue their fight against Shia Muslims and the United States. In what was one of the stupidest decisions of America's war in Iraq, the US demobilized veterans of Saddam Hussein's defeated army, many of them experienced soldiers and officers, leaving them with no place to go and no means of earning a living. MEMBERS OF SADDAM HUSSEIN'S DEFEATED ARMY.

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