ISIS: You Know You're Evil When Al Qaeda Casts You Out

When Ayman al-Zawahri of Al Qaeda cast out the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), ISIS proved it was badder than bad.

Today's (2/4/2014) New York Times ran what might be the quotation of the day by William McCants, a scholar of militant Islam at the Brookings Institution: "'ISIS is now officially the biggest and baddest global jihadi group on the planet. Nothing says 'hard-core' like being cast out by Al Qaeda.'"

Just as Osama bin Laden thought the leaders of Al Qaeda in Iraq were too bloody even for him and were creating bad publicity for Al Qaeda, so does Ayman al-Zawahri, the former second and now first in command of Al Qaeda, believe that ISIS is doing the same in Syria (and Iraq).

The Nusra Front is Al Qaeda's official group in Syria, but ISIS shows no signs of needing Al Qaeda or the Nusra Front. ISIS has supplied itself with extortion, by commandeering oil fields, border tolls, and by selling grain. ISIS thrives without links to Qaeda leaders in Pakistan.

Now the conflict in Syria, which has killed over 130,000 people so far, mostly Syrians, is so bloody and despicable it's hard to find a group to support. Al Qaeda groups, including ISIS and the Nusra Front, have excluded anyone approaching moderation in opposition to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, once thought to be a possible reformist and now known to be as bloody and cruel as his father, if not more so.