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Notes -
I think ISIS went a bit similarly: the promise of a new caliphate brought out a big chunk of violent fanatics that otherwise would have been terrorists hiding from view, gave faith that they would win battles in a traditional type war with God on their side, and pitted them against a number of local powers backed up by Western air and ground forces. They lost.
I'm not conspiracy minded, but it would at least be an interesting one that this was done deliberately as a honey pot, but I have zero evidence of this. I also can't speak to it's long-term effects on the region --- how many of those dead IS fighters would have fought with the Houthis, Hezbollah, or Hamas in recent conflicts?
Very few for all those. The Houthis and Hezbollah are Shia who ISIS thinks are heretics that deserve to be brutally murdered and most recruits from Gaza just join Hamas and Hamas has few foreign fighters.
I agree with the general thrust though ISIS probably sucked a lot of people in who would have committed terrorist attacks in Europe.
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