ISIS framed its campaign as erasing colonial partitions of the Middle East

Evidence

After the defeat of the Ottoman empire in World War I, the French and British partitioned the Middle East into newly created countries. The militants claimed that the region had been carved up to prevent the formation of an Islamic state. They portrayed their military campaign as directed at erasing the “Crusader partitions” and establishing a caliphate. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2438

Categorization

• XREF: The ISIS use of ‘Crusader partitions’ and ‘caliphate’ framing is a textbook instance of Bandura’s moral justification mechanism — investing aggression with ideological purpose. Corroborates the vault’s account of how actors sanctify harmful policy.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2438