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Originally Posted by TexaninVA
Well, if we start off with a defeatist attitude and saying we can never win, we are indeed guaranteed not to win. But, yes, with the right leadership and informed public support we can win. It may take several generations to do it granted, but what’s the alternative … acquiescence?
I disagree and, as per my earlier post, think what we call this war is very important, psychologically and otherwise. A war against Radical Islam means we also root out radical mosques and imams here in CONUS as but one of many examples … it’s not all military by any means.
Actually, we do have a country to defeat in ISIS. It now controls a land mass approximately equal in size to the UK, with lots of oil fields to boot. To the extent other threats pop up, which they will, the whole idea is to obviate them while small. A grand strategy would allow that. One quick example, everyone in the Intel Community in the mid-1990s knew Bin Laden was a threat but we let him walk multiple times because there was then no grand strategy to combat Radical Islam nor any political will be they D or R.
And finally, I also disagree that there has been a strategy all along. There have no doubt been operational plans by which to fly drones, attack targets etc but that is not a strategy. When POTUS says we don’t have a strategy yet, I have to take him at him word. Besides, don’t forget, while the Intel Community and DoD is full of Americans who want to do the correct thing, they will always look to the top for guidance. That’s where the leadership part comes in, or is this case, does not apply
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I don't think I have a defeatist attitude, simply a realistic one. How do you define "win". Can we eliminate every person in the world that believes in this radical view of Islam? Even if we could do you believe that no one would pick up the torch at some point and start it up again?
This land mass that ISIS currently controls is part of two sovereign nations. It is not their land. What we can do is similar to what we did when Sadaam invade Kuwait or when Hitler invaded Europe. We can only chase them out of those areas with the approval of those countries.
And don't forget, these people are citizens of one of those sovereign nations. They are allowed to live within the confines of those nations. They can go back home and blend in with the population and lay low until all the heat is off. Once we think we have won, they will pop out again.
As this is not a traditional war, I don't think that we can win in the traditional sense. We will not have an ISIS leader signing documents of surrender.
We can simply go in and take control of areas that belong to Syria and Iraq without the permission of those sovereign countries. Even if we drive them out of the land masses that they currently control, they would simply go and try to take over other areas that they consider part of Levant. They believe that they own this land. They believe that the Koran gives it to them and that the current government of these countries have no rights to them. Would you have us defeat and occupy all of the Middle East? That is the land mass that we would be talking about, not the little piece that they currently control.
And if we did, they would never stop fighting. Their children and grandchildren for the next hundred generation will continue fighting. This is not a war that is winnable in the traditional sense. It is the current and future state of the world from now on. What we can do is control and minimize radical Islam. And then, there are many non-Muslim terrorist groups in the world. According to the FBI database, there have been 318 terrorist incidents in the US from 1980-2005. That includes 209 bombings and 43 arsons. Out of those incidents, 42% were committed by Latino groups, 24% by Extreme Left Wing groups, 7% by Jewish Extremists, 6% by Muslim Extremists, and 5% by Communists.
Terrorism is something we will live with forever.