Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1.Civil War.
A civil war is a war fought within a single country between or among
different groups of citizens who want to control the government and
do not recognize another groups right to rule. Civil wars are almost
always total wars because each side feels compelled to destroy the
enemys political support base. Regional rifts, such as the American
Civil War (1861 to 1865) between the North and the South,
characterize some civil wars, whereas other civil wars have been
fought among ethnic rivals, religious rivals, and rival clans.
Revolutions can spark civil wars as well.
2.Revolutionary War.
This occurs when the general population of a country rises up
against its own government, in order to overthrow it and replace it.
The best examples of this would be The American Revolutionary War
and The French Revolution.
3.Wars of religion.
This is when a large number of people, from the same country or
different countries, take up arms against the people of another
religion, or even different sects of the same religion.
The best examples of many countries banding together for the sake
of religion, to fight another religion, would be the Crusades, The 30
Years war in Europe, and The War of the Spanish Succession.
4.World War.
When many countries all over the world go to war against each
other, while united through alliances against the opposing side.
The Best examples of this would be WWI and WWII, although it may
be said that the 7 Years War of 1756 to 1763 was also a world war,
in that it was fought mainly in North America and in Europe, while
minor sea engagements spread to the Caribbean and other places.
5.Cyber War.
This is a very new form of warfare, dealing with the attacks on
another country's computer systems, mainly through the internet.
This could be done through misinformation, such as false reports
placed in another country's most popular media, to virus attacks to
shut down internet communications completely.
A good example of this would be the garbage and misinformation
coming out of the Middle East today, from such sources as Al
Jazeera, Al Qaida, and the Taliban. Their victories could be said to
occur when people of the target country begin to believe bizarre
conspiracy theories, or think that we a re losing in Iraq, when we are
actually winning, and nearly finished there.
6.Guerrilla War.
This is Spanish for "little war". This is when there is a part of a
population of a country, much smaller than the established part,
who take to fighting in jungles and forests in little groups, always
hiding and attacking only by surprise, usually on people who can not
fight back.
Good examples of this would be the Malay war of the 1950's,
Vietnam, and present-day Columbia.
7.Proxy War.
As another answerer had said, this is when two major countries, for
whatever reasons, can not openly fight each other, so they involve
themselves in smaller conflicts, supporting either side, practicing for
a possible future war against each other. The goals of the conflict
itself usually become minor to the big picture of the two big
countries indirectly fighting.
A good example of this would be the Afghanistan War of 1979-1989.
The Soviets entered to support a failing communist government,
only to be embroiled in a long guerrilla war with the Mujahedeen,
supported by the U.S.
8.Insurgency.
This is when the majority of a country has a popular elected
government, yet some small elements of the population refuse to
accept the reality, and carry out attacks usually on defenceless
people, to scare them into reversing their support for the
government.
The best example of this would be the Iraq War Sadam Hussein.
9.Class or caste war.
This is when a whole group of a certain class rise up in rebellion
against another class.
The best examples of this would be the Russian Revolution, and
Cambodia in 1975-79.
10.Wars of Unification.
This is when one strong state of a group of states, begins a series of
wars to unite all the states into one country.
The best examples of this would be the Unification of Germany
under Bismarck, and the Unification of Italy under Garibaldi and
Maximillian.
11.Wars of Nationalism.
This occurs when the people of one country suddenly feel that they
are better than the people of another country, and therefore should
be ruled by them.
Good examples of this would be Japan and Korea, Japan and China,
and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.
12.Wars for Resources.
This is when the people or government of a country decides that it
needs the resources of another country, in order to survive or
prosper.
It can also be of different peoples of the same country.
Good examples of this would be Darfur today, over water and arable
land, or Japan's drive for the Indonesia oilfields at the beginning of
WWII in the Pacific.
13.Wars of Genocide.
This happens when one group of people decide that another group
of people aren't fit to live, and must be exterminated causing
extremely large number of victims.
A good example of this would be Rwanda a few years ago.
14.Total War.
A total war is a war in which combatants use every resource
available to destroy the social fabric of the enemy. Total wars are
highly destructive and are characterized by mass civilian casualties
because winning a total war often requires combatants to break the
peoples will to continue fighting. World Wars I and II were total
wars, marked by the complete destruction of the civilian economy
and society in many countries, including France, Germany, the
Soviet Union, Italy, Great Britain, and Japan.
15.Cold War.
A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does not
involve direct military action but is practiced primarily through
economic and political actions, propaganda, and acts of espionage
or proxy wars conducted by substitutes. The substitutes are typically
states that are "satellites" of the conflicting nations, i.e., nations
allied to them or under their political influence. Opponents in a cold
war will often provide economic or military aid, such as weapons,
tactical support or military advisors, to lesser nations involved in
conflicts with the opposing country. The best example of this would
be the Cold War of 1946 to 1991, in Europe and elsewhere, between
the Warsaw Pact and NATO.
16.Biological Warfare
Biological warfare is the employment in war of microorganisms to
injure or destroy people, animals, or crops; it may also be called
Islamic State
The Origins of the Islamic State
From early terrorist beginnings to the current Islamic State War
The Islamist Jihadist group now known as The Islamic State had
its origins in the radical Sunni Jihadist movement fostered by Osama
bin-Laden and his al-Qaida group. What is now called The Islamic
State has had many names as it evolved from a minor branch of alQaida to become the central belligerent in the current regional
Middle East War.
In 1989, a Jordanian-born Islamist militant named Abu Musab alZarqawi, like many other Jihadist militants, travelled to Afghanistan,
intending to fight against the occupying Soviet Union. Arriving too
late to participate in the fighting (the Soviets withdrew from that
war in 1989), Zarqawi instead befriended Osama bin-Laden, who
had been instrumental in recruiting and supplying Jihadists from the
Arab nations who went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. Soon
after meeting bin-Laden, Zarqawi returned home to Jordan in the
early 1990s and founded a local militant group called Jund al-Sham
(Soldiers of Sham) in 1991. (NOTE: the word "Sham" is Arabic for
the region encompassing, generally, modern Syria, Jordan, Lebanon,
and Palestine/Israel. In English, Sham is often translated as the
word Levant).
Arrested in 1992 for militant activities involving weapons and
explosives, Zarqawi was released from a Jordanian prison in 1999.
He continued his active militancy, and was implicated in the
"Millennium Plot" to bomb Jordanian HOTELS and several targets in
the United States. Zarqawi fled Jordan, returning to Afghanistan
where he again connected with bin-Laden. The al-Qaida leader
provided money and resources for Zarqawi to open up a militant
training camp in Afghanistan. It was during this time period that he
set up the group Jama'at al-Tawhid wal-Jihad (Organization of
Monotheism and Jihad), also known by the initials JTJ.
Following the al-Qaida attack on the United States, American forces
invaded Afghanistan, Zarqawi and his group fought alongside alQaida and the Taliban against American forces. After being wounded
in the Afghanistan War, Zarqawi left Afghanistan, reportedly moving
between Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Zarqawi and his followers had camps
in Iraq and in Syria, and his presence in Iraq (which most likely was
not with the permission of Saddam's government), was one of the
justifications for the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, as his group was
considered (rightfully so) as a branch of al-Qaida.
Following the invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein,
Zarqawi and his JTJ became the best known and most violent of the
Sunni resistance groups, quickly earning a reputation for brutality,
JTJ used suicide bombers, improvised explosive devices, video-taped
On October 17, 2004, JTJ pledged allegiance to bin-Laden and alQaida, and changed its name to Tanzim Qaidat al-Jihad fi Bilad
al-Rafidayn, but is best known by the name al-Qaida in Iraq.
In January, 2006, al-Qaida in Iraq joined with five other Sunni groups
to form the Mujahideen Shura Council, to further coordinate their
resistance to the U.S. forces and to the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi
government.
The United States attempted to kill or capture Zarqawi multiple
times, and June 7, 2006, a targeted U.S. airstrike destroyed
Zarqawi's safe house in the Iraqi city of Baqabah, killing him and
others.
In October of 2006, the Mujahideen Shura Council re-organized and
renamed itself as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), now led by Abu
Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, due to the death of
Zarqawi. The Islamic State of Iraq continued the tactics begun by
Zarqawi, with beheadings and bombing attacks on civilian targets.
This newly named group retained allegiance and connections with
al-Qaida.
After the death of al-Masri in 2010, al-Baghdadi became the sole
leader of ISI and, in conjunction with al-Qaeda, sent Abu Mohammad
al-Golani to Syria in 2012 to start a Syrian branch of al-Qaeda to
take part in the new Syrian civil war. This Syrian branch of al-Qaida
became known as Jabhat al-Nusra lAhl as-Sham (Support Front
for the People of the Sham). The shortened version of the name,
The Nusra Front, is the best-known name for this group.
On April 8, 2013, al-Baghdadi declared that his group, al-Qaida in
Iraq, had merged with the Nusra Front to form the Islamic State of
Iraq and al-Sham (known both as ISIL and ISIS). Al-Golani disputed
this merger, and appealed to the leader of the main branch of alQaida, Ayman al-Zawahiri (who had taken over following bin-Laden's
death), to resolve the dispute. The al-Qaida leader sided with alGolani and the Nusra Front, and told al-Baghdadi to confine his
activities to Iraq. Al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State of Iraq and alSham then broke away from al-Qaida, launching attacks on the
Nusra Front in Syria.
On June 29, 2014, al-Baghdadi declared himself the leader of a
worldwide caliphate (claiming authority of all the world's Muslims),
and renamed his group as The Islamic State.
Thus, we can trace the lineage of the current Islamic State from the
beginnings of al-Zarqawi's Jund al-Sham to the JTJ, to al-Qaida in
Iraq, the Mujahedeen Shura Council, to the Islamic State of al-Sham
to the Islamic State. So, while the American intervention in Iraq that
began in June, 2014 to stop the military advances of the Islamic
State was the first official action against the current Jihadist
organization, in reality, the U.S. has been fighting this group since
the 2001 Invasion of Afghanistan in a military sense, even though
the U.S. and her allies have been targets of the terrorist activities of
this group since 1999. Looked at through the prism of the history
and origins of the Islamic State all the way back to the beginning of
Zarqawi's terrorism in 1999 and 2000, and his leadership of Jund alSham in the Afghanistan War, the U.S. has been battling this
organization since before the start of the so-called "War on Terror."
the Arabs but it was also a massive blow to the Arabs morale. Here
were four of the strongest Arab nations systematically defeated by
just one nation.
The success of the campaign must have surprised the Israelis.
However, it also gave them a major problem that was to prove a
major problem for the Israeli government for decades. By capturing
the Sinai, the Golan Heights and the West Bank of the Jordan River,
the Israelis had captured for themselves areas of great strategic
value. However, the West Bank also contained over 600,000 Arabs
who now came under Israeli administration. Their plight led many
young Arabs into joining the Palestinian Liberation Organisation
(PLO), a group that the Israelis deemed a terrorist organisation.
Israeli domestic policies became a lot more complicated after the
military successes of June 1967.