On Tuesday’s edition of Breitbart News Daily, former FBI Counterterrorism Center instructor Kim Jensen told SiriusXM host Stephen K. Bannon that the establishment of the Islamic State as a “caliphate” was no mere formality — it was a defining event in the War on Terror, and will stand as one of President Barack Obama’s greatest failures, a legacy that will unfortunately last long after he leaves office.

“In July of 2014, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi established the Islamic State,” Jensen explained. “That has really become a harbinger event, and that has really changed the landscape of terrorism for the entire world. It’s been the single most significant event, I would say, in the last 80 or 90 years, since the 1920s.”

“By establishing the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has changed the landscape of extremism and terrorism,” he stressed. “What we’re witnessing, and what we’re confronting, is a result of the establishment of the Islamic State in July of 2014. Unfortunately, the Islamic State continues to exist – and every day the Islamic State continues to exist, it legitimizes the Islamic State, and it acts kind of like a light to moths, and it grows exponentially.”

Jensen said that “light to moths” emanates from a “very specific ideology,” which existed long before the Islamic State was established. For example, he argued that Mullah Omar of the Taliban in Afghanistan could be viewed as al-Baghdadi’s predecessor.

“Mullah Omar declared himself, and was endorsed by Osama bin Laden in the 1990s. He declared an Islamic state in Afghanistan, and declared himself the title, the 1,400-year-old title, of ‘Commander of the Faithful,’” Jensen recalled.

His contention is that Obama allowed al-Baghdadi to create a far more powerful and aggressive Islamist empire than the Taliban or al-Qaeda ever could, on ground with much greater strategic and religious significance than Afghanistan. It’s often overlooked by Western analysts that ISIS holds the very territory where the final, apocalyptic battle between Muslims and infidels was prophesied to occur.

Al-Baghdadi, in short, was able to become a much more plausible “Commander of the Faithful” than Mullah Omar could ever dream of being. That is the Obama legacy that will burden the civilized world for years to come, even after the Islamic State is conclusively defeated on the battlefield.

Breitbart News Daily airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

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