Posted on 02/15/2015 9:12:19 PM PST by lbryce
As I see it the Sunni minority in Iraq and the Sunni majority in Syria are under siege by Shia. ISIS is the one successful Sunni group opposing the Shia. A very large portion of Arab Sunnis at least passively support ISIS, not because they support its extreme ideology but because they want the Sunnis to emerge victorious. A subset of the pro ISIS Sunnis actually support their extreme ideology. What we call the Iraqi military is seen by almost all Arab Sunnis as a Shia army under the influence, if not the control, of Iran. This explains why Turkey maintains open borders, as well as the policy of Jordan, Saudi and the Emirates.
I simply do not understand our strategy, assuming we really have one. If our goal is defeating ISIS's ideology and its support of international terrorism this cannot be done by indirect fire, PERIOD! If [conclusive defeat] is our objective we have only have limited choices: either military control of 25 million Syrian/Iraqi Sunnis, which will require a sustained force of 500,000 for decades; or creating conditions whereby the majority of Sunni Arabs will see it in their self interest to subjugate the ideological minority.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
No need. Push oil & gas production on (US) federally owned lands and offshore. Slap high tariffs on non-North American oil imports and use those revenues to subsidize U.S. production. Continue to push excess production & transport capability with a view to export to Europe and Japan. Encourage and enable reasonably(!) clean coal power production in the US instead of taking it off the table.
Yet, he has the authority to do so. An authority that is reinforced in his new request for an AUMF.
He is asking for permission to do something he won't do.
There is a whole lotta double-dealing going' on...
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“The Empire of Japan? — It took us less than 4 years to get an unconditional surrender.
The Third Reich? — It took even less time.”
Our society has fundamentally transformed since WWII. The can-do, unified, godly culture that beat back evil then is now fifty percent the same kind of evil that we’d fight. I’d class liberals with Islamists on the side of evil even though the Islamists would execute the liberals; the liberals don’t believe that and would continue to side with them. If we had to refight WWII with our current society we’d lose. Imagine how the embedded reporter from CBS would portray the casualties from any battle on the 6:00 news. The home front would rapidly elect anybody on the promise of “winning with honor” by getting the hell out.
I think Napoleon did something worse. Regardless of your hyperbole, the invasion of Iraq failed to produce a viable state. That was probably predictable but at the time, but nonetheless Saddam had to go.
more detestable, diabolical than Nazi Germany
No, ISIS is just more adept at total war than the Nazis were. The Nazis didn't rape (many) Frenchwomen or cut lots of throats, but they didn't have to since the French surrendered. Total war is the only answer to ISIS since those are their rules. Annihilating them means lots of civilian casualties so it won't happen until we actually get dragged into WWIII.
No, his new request is for weaker authority: no ground troops and a 3 year deadline. Recipe for complete defeat, which is of course what he wants.
The problem goes back to the idiot administrator Bush put in charge after the military victory over Saddam’s forces, Paul Bremer. Obama made it worse, but we really never had a chance.
You extracted my thoughts and worded them better.
“Annihilating them means lots of civilian casualties so it won’t happen until we actually get dragged into WWIII.”
And that will take the same pussyfooting around until it is understood that massive civilian casualties are what is necessary to end WWIII, just as in WWII.
The only way to effectively fight them is to commit something akin to genocide and stay strong enough to repeat as necessary as it will piss off much of the world, whether Islamic or not. Nobody would end up being happy as the carnage would be unimaginable. Screwed either way.
How does James Fallows, or any other US media/religion/political person know WHY a "very large portion of Arab Sunnis" support IS?
I think they have all been waiting for IS since the fall of the Caliph in 1922, that while some of them (or many of them, who knows) find some of the brutality distasteful they at least have the good sense, unlike us, to leave the business of war to their warriors.
False.
Then we could force Turkey to cut off its clandestine support of ISIS.
Also false.
We are now in a pickle
You betcha.
+1.
Please outline a War Plan for us, achievable with existing or potential US resources (you're allowed to factor in allies, but not foolish ones like "Belgium").
Think big. Use the whole globe. Open the factories and shipyards.
Then explain how your War Plan achieves your declared aim.
Take your time.
That's very good. I like that.
Notice how, on December 8, 1941, it was Congress giving orders to FDR:
"Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States."
My, aren’t you snarky. And bossy. You’ll fit right into Hillary’s administration.
The plan that’s going on right now will actually work pretty well — make sure the jihadists feed themselves into each other’s guns, make sure they don’t run out of ammo, and make sure they continue to converge on the Middle East, while closing US borders, and legally reclassifying Islam as hate speech, rather than a religion (it clearly isn’t one), and convincing the EU to do the same (or not, who cares?).
Or, we could have stayed in iraq.
Allah = SATAN.
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