“Islamic State is a challenging foe. To defeat it, the US must be willing to confront Islamism.”
An upstart republic defeating a 1400 year ISOM (Islamic State Of Mind)? Not with current leadership.
From the Quranic Concept of War...
Dr. Antulio Echevarria recently argued the US military does not have a doc- trine for war as much as it has a doctrine for operations and battles.5 The military has a deficit of strategic, and, one could add, philosophic thinking.
http://strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/parameters/Articles/06winter/win-ess.pdf
I’ve wondered if democracies must necessarily be strategically weak just by the nature of changing leadership and also due to the same inward focus that enables them eventually to discover they can vote themselves the national treasury.
It might be necessary to conclusively deal with one’s enemies, but sometimes they vote not to do so...just because...