Lindsey Graham was the only presidential candidate who advocated for sending tens of thousands of United States ground troops to Syria and Iraq to defeat Islamic State. Graham, a republican senator from South Carolina, exited the 2016 presidential race today. While he disagrees with Graham’s proposal, President Obama praised him for being “honest about suggesting ‘here is something I would do that the president is not doing.’ In an interview with National Public Radio, Obama said calls for carpet-bombing “would have an enormous backlash against the United States” if tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians and Iraqis are killed in the process. He also said deployment of tens of thousands of troops would result in an indefinite period of governing. So what will work? And what will not?
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Lindsey Graham’s Exit & What to do About ISIS
ISIS the Peacemaker
A lot of priorities are being reordered in the Middle East and North Africa now, thanks to the new threats that have emerged over the past year. This could, unexpectedly, lead to some ongoing problems being resolved
Three Steps Toward Defeating ISIS That Are Better Than Those Heard At Tuesday’s Debate
I can only imagine how much the Daesh terrorists enjoyed watching 2 hours of prime video footage they will likely use in their next recruitment video. … Such rhetoric sadly plays right into the ultimate strategy of Daesh — to convince naive and disturbed individuals that they are just as strong as the United States […]
Samantha Power: Putting ISIS Out of Business
ISIL ruthlessly extracts financial resources from the territory where it operates. … To prevent ISIL from enriching itself, we need every country and its citizens to stop buying what ISIL is selling. This requires unprecedented collective action that the United Nations is uniquely positioned to mobilize.
The West’s Best Ally Against ISIS
The pesh merga fighters I command are not conscripts; they would rather die than surrender to the tyranny of the Islamic State. We are determined to liberate Kurdistan … We have yet more volunteers ready to join the fight against the Islamic State — if only we had the resources to train and equip them.
Drone Strikes Are Creating Hatred Toward America That Will Last for Generations
If we want to curb terrorism in the United States, we must stop drone attacks in the Middle East. … ‘The resentment created by American use of unmanned strikes … is much greater than the average American appreciates,’ Gen. [Stanley] McChrystal, who led the US counter-insurgency strategy in Afghanistan, said in 2013.
Does the Islamic State Want an Apocalyptic Showdown? Not So Fast
As we contemplate a change of course in the fight against the Islamic State as a result of its recent escalation against the West, it is certainly worth thinking about what the Islamic State hopes to achieve. But our debate should be informed by accurate information about the group’s own internal deliberations …
From September 11th On
In the aftermath of last week’s attack in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people, VOA has compiled a timeline of the deadliest terror attacks on United States soil.
Why ISIS Is Winning
The U.S. needs to assume a stronger role in coordinating the anti-ISIS coalition and step up its intervention in the region, both military and diplomatic. At present, ISIS is benefiting greatly from the strategic confusion among its opponents.
Islamic State’s Achilles’ Heel: Its Sunni Identity
This is an evil that cannot, contrary to what President Obama says, be contained. It must be defeated. And the only way to do that is to turn Sunni Arabs — its popular base — against it.
The Real War
We are confronted by a virus that is closer to epidemiology than to traditional state-to-state warfare. We will have to eradicate this virulent religious intolerance and violence here at home and across the planet. This is an extraordinarily difficult challenge.
The Islamic State Paradox
[ISIS] is partly a totalitarian state and partly a transnational terrorist organization. As a state it can be attacked and defeated, at least temporarily. And yet, paradoxically, the more we in the West attack the state, the more its appeal as a terrorist organization will grow among those who see the West as an enemy.
What Paris Taught Us About the Islamic State
The few remaining senior leaders of al Qaeda must be scratching their heads. Their complex hijackings and bombings required months or years of planning … ISIL has figured out how to strike at the heart of its adversaries … It’s repeatable, cheap, and effective
America’s Politicians are Feeding the Islamic State Narrative
[I]f U.S. politicians define Islam as the problem and cast aspersions on Muslim populations in the West, they are feeding the Islamic State narrative. They are materially undermining the war against terrorism and complicating the United States’ (already complicated) task in the Middle East.