Intelligence misjudgments understated ISIS’s territorial ambitions

Evidence

The counteroffensive against ISIS was based on misjudgments that overestimated the competence and resolve of the Iraqi army and greatly underestimated the strength of ISIS, who was pursuing territorial conquests not just acting out resentments against the Shiite-dominated regime. Intelligence officials blamed the Obama administration for downgrading the seriousness of the militants’ offensive (Baker & Schmitt, 2014). They attributed the low priority to the demands of other crises and the administration’s reluctance to get bogged down in another Iraqi war. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2485 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: US intelligence assessments misjudged ISIS by misreading its territorial ambition — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2485; Intelligence failures on ISIS stemmed from underestimating its strength and resolve. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2485; ISIS framed its campaign as erasing colonial partitions of the Middle East — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2438

Broader Connections

• US intelligence assessments misjudged ISIS by misreading its territorial ambition #corroborates (0.98) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2485