Washington Post editorial calls for "boots on the ground" to stop ISIS

[YankeeFan]

No serious approach to the group can focus only on Iraq, as the United States has done thus far. The extremists treat Iraq and Syria as one area of operations, and the United States must do the same. In that theater, as Mr. Obama has said, the United States must find partners: Kurds in Iraq and Syria, Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq, the Iraqi government if it can become more inclusive, what is left of the Free Syrian Army. Aiding them does not require a U.S. invasion, but it will need “boots on the ground,” as Mr. Obama already has acknowledged by sending close to 1,000 special forces back to Iraq. They will be needed for training, to assist in air targeting and perhaps more. As The Post’s Greg Miller reported
Sunday, the United States suffers from “persistent intelligence gaps” in Syria; these can be filled only with a human presence in the region, not by drones or satellite technology alone.

http://wapo.st/1mKOSjE

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The American political elite's (Post editorial board sure qualifies) belief in war apparently cannot be shaken by any amount of past failure. Also, how does the introduction of U.S. forces into a foreign country without its government's approval not constitute an invasion?

 

[Songbird]

What does Bezos get out of it?

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

I don't see what ****ing them in the ass solves.

 

[Songbird]

Nassau is a long way away from the caliphate.

 

[Boom_70]

If only we could fight ISIS with drivers and fairway woods it would appear that
we are well stocked.

 

[Boom_70]

What does Bezos get out of it?

More boot sales for Amazon?

 

[YankeeFan]

Bret Stephens in the WSJ:

In the current issue of the New Yorker, Mr. Packer has an essay titled "The Common Enemy," which paints ISIS in especially terrifying colors: The Islamic State's project is "totalitarian." Its ideology is "expansionist as well as eliminationist." It has "many hundreds of fighters holding European or American passports [who] will eventually return home with training, skills, and the arrogance of battlefield victory." It threatened a religious minority with "imminent genocide." Its ambitions will not "remain confined to the boundaries of the Tigris and the Euphrates." The administration's usual counterterrorism tool, the drone strike, is "barely relevant against the Islamic State's thousands of ground troops."

"Pay attention to other people's nightmares," he concludes, "because they might be contagious."

Correcto-mundo. Which brings us back to the questions confronting the Bush administration on Sept. 12, 2001. Are we going to fight terrorists over there—or are we going to wait for them to come here? Do we choose to confront terrorism by means of war—or as a criminal justice issue? Can we assume the cancer in the Middle East won't spread so we can "pivot" to Asia and do some more "nation-building at home"? Can we win with a light-footprint approach against a heavy-footprint enemy?

Say what you will about George W. Bush: He got every one of these questions right while Mr. Obama got every one of them wrong. It's a truth that may at last be dawning on the likes of Mr. Packer and the other neo-neocons, not that I expect them ever to admit it.


http://online.wSportsJournalists.com/articles/bret-stephens-the-neo-neocons-1409008955

 

[Songbird]

Seems like something the Blackwater (or whatever it's called today) guys would love to be a part of.

That said, Brits are teaming with Delta Force and Seal Team 6 to "cut the head off the snake" pronto:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/sas-special-forces-forming-hunter-4097083

 

[YankeeFan]

That said, Brits are teaming with Delta Force and Seal Team 6 to "cut the head off the snake" pronto:

I hope they take care when cutting off the head of the snake:

A Chinese chef cooking a dish with cobra flesh was killed by the snake he had planned to eat — when the creature’s severed head chomped down on him first.

Peng Fan set the Indochinese spitting cobra’s head aside while chopping its body for a soup, the Mirror newspaper reported.

But when he tried to toss the reptile’s head in the trash 20 minutes later, it bit him, injecting him with its fast-acting venom.

Diners in his restaurant recalled hearing screams coming from the kitchen.

“Suddenly there was a lot of commotion,” one woman said. “We did not know what was happening . . . After we heard that, we did not continue with our meal.”

All reptiles can function for up to an hour without the rest of their bodies, an expert said.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/24/chinese-chef-dies-after-severed-cobra-head-bites-him/

 

[Songbird]

That really needs to be a Simpsons bit.

 

[britwrit]

So, we put boots on the ground in Iraq. What happens when ISIS inevitably scuttles back over the border into what is still technically Syria?

I really know nothing about the geopolitics of the situation. Is it a possible to use the specter of ISIS to compel Assad into some form of power sharing, somewhat democratic arrangement with the non-insane segment of the Syrian rebels?

 

[Football_Bat]

We don't need to fight a third war in Iraq.

Just give Turkey and Qatar and Saudi Arabia the ultimatum to cut off the money flow and the cancer will shrivel and die. If those three won't play ball, we cut them off.

Just the threat will bring the Saudis to their knees quivering.

 

[YankeeFan]

Just the threat will bring the Saudis to their knees quivering.

I think you misunderstand who has the leverage in this relationship.

Our own energy production is helping the equation, but Saudi is really not afraid of finding a market for their oil.

 

[heyabbott]

The American political elite's (Post editorial board sure qualifies) belief in war apparently cannot be shaken by any amount of past failure. Also, how does the introduction of U.S. forces into a foreign country without its government's approval not constitute an invasion?

Actually, this can be what the US is good at, militarily. Destroying an enemy on the ground, without having to hold the territory. The US is horrible lately about governing conquered lands, see Afghanistan and Iraq. we don't have the stomach or will to pacify areas using strength and Islam terrorists like Taliban, Al Queda, ISIS and to an extent Hamas think any political or social investment by the west such as schools, police, public works and hospitals are merely attempts to convert the muslims.

Let the Kurds govern the area when we're done. A couple of forward air cav bases, manned and unmanned higher altitude air attacks and forces on the ground to clear out and siege entrenched positions. we can do this as long as we dont have to stay. Pound the **** out of them, take out anti air capability and destroy munition storage facilities. Degrade them to the point where the Kurds can kill them off.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

If the history of Israel proves anything, it's that militarily superior forces cannot "kill off" an indigenous motivated enemy on its own territory. Sooner or later, usually sooner, it reorganizes and returns. Until the Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria perceive ISIL as their enemy instead of a force advancing their interests, ISIL will survive and prosper. It's unlikely that another U.S. military occupation or worse, occupation by Kurds, will persuade many Sunnis ISIL is their foe.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

An efficient system of spies, infiltrators and informants will net more gains in exterminating ISIS than rage militaire.
You would think we would have learned recent lessons from that folly.
Tactically, this is not a stationary target.

 

[DanOregon]

There are shot-callers for ISIS sitting comfortably in countries who we deem allies. They should be made less comfortable. A few "businessmen" killed in drive-bys, explosions and plane crashes would do more than shelling 500 ISIS militants.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Alas, those "businessmen" are often members of the ruling families of those countries, which we don't dare destabilize in any way. Money given to ISIL and similar groups by Saudi Arabians, Qataris, etc. are in effect bribes to keep fighting Shiites and other religions and not the Sunni powers-that-be.

 

[3_Octave_Fart]

ISIS bears resemblance to the Klan organizationally.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/08/how_islamic_state_isis_resembl.html

Pentagon chief: ISIS 'beyond anything we have seen'
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/21/world/meast/iraq-crisis/

And the Golfer-in-Chief called them the JV squad.