Posted on 05/22/2017 7:36:02 PM PDT by vannrox
People have asked about the Pentagon’s strategy for defeating ISIS. On Friday, SecDef Mattis responded: “merciless annihilation.” (Which is totally a Mattis response.) The Pentagon is looking to stop ISIS fighters from scattering like cockroaches back to other countries after they lose their caliphate. He stood shoulder to shoulder with General Joseph Dunford, and Presidential Envoy to the ISIS Coalition Brett McGurk to explain the strategy to the Pentagon Press Corps.
“The foreign fighters are the strategic threat should they return home to Tunis, to Kuala Lumpur, to Paris, to Detroit. Wherever. By taking the time to deconflict, to surround and then attack, we carry out the annihilation campaign so we don’t simply transplant this problem from one location to another.” James Mattis
President Trump reviewed the Pentagon report that was created after the DOD was ordered to complete a review of Obama’s previous strategy. Two things changed, according to Mattis: Trump delegated authority to the “right level to aggressively and in a timely manner move against enemy vulnerabilities.” The second thing was changing the tactical method from an “attrition fight” which simply shoved ISIS out of areas, to surrounding and destroying them.
Transplanting trouble
One of the difficulties with the attacks against ISIS has been if they escape and disperse into the rest of the world after the loss of territory. Returnees who attempt to go back to their country of origin and continue the fight are concerning, lest they manage to spur the formation of jihad networks in those countries and carry out attacks.
Those who are classed as “operational” jihadis are extremely dangerous. These are the ones who are dispatched back to their countries, or to new ones, and conduct attacks, whether as a group or the lone wolf style based on orders from the remnants of ISIS.
Then there are the jihadis who became disillusioned with ISIS, but still support the Caliphate and want to mentor young people in the ways of radical Islam. There are some disaffected jihadis as well, those who cannot return to their original countries.
That merciless annihilation
When Mattis was asked if the US will stay indefinitely in Syria, he said, “I’m not willing to sign up for that. We’re there to drive ISIS to its knees. … There’s got to be a political solution to the larger issues there. It’s not going to be U.S. troops at the point of a gun making that happen.”
The issues of stabilizing regions that have been ‘liberated’ and taking down the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria are formidable obstacles that are being addressed.
But if anyone can come up with a plan to drive ISIS to its knees, it’s General James Mattis.
“Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.” Gen. James Mattis before he became SecDef
Bump
Take no prisoners and I’ll believe it.
They only respect power.
Nuke ‘em ‘til they glow.
Sounds like the 'Rats need to be surrounded and annihilated...
I love that plan. Apparently so does Saudi Arabia, Israel and Egypt.
Mad Dog 2020
Nuke them.
Kill every last one of them.
McCain’s creation
Sec. Mattis, please consider having Congress sign out Letters of Marque and Reprisal.
Old farts like me with a lot of fight left in them would love a chance to rain private security company death down on those scumbags...
It’s worked before.
Regards,
A Marine.
This is a good thing....right?
And shoot’em in the dark!
I see what you did there.
SEMPER FI!!!!
This old man can still count the pine cones on a tree at 500 meters.
Now that Mr Twinkie is out of the WH, maybe we can dump the PC-ness and let the pros handle the wars. Politicians have killed more soldiers with their “surgical” wars than would have died had we let the generals do their job. War is messy no matter how you fight it. Get it over with as quickly as you can.
Does this include a Berlin 1945 style encirclement and destruction, with all surviving enemy penned up for 6 months as we weed through them one by one. And then we will have decades of hunting down the SOBs who go back to normal life?
These guys met the Nazi behavior standard in every way.
It will be yet another epic failure in the middle east if we allow them to scatter back to their homes in Europe.
Oh-rah!
Maybe the Saudis will stop funding ISIS?
"War is cruelty. There is no use trying to reform it; the crueler it is, the sooner it will be over." - William Tecumseh Sherman.
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