That was a great article and I added it to the references for the below letter.
Unfortunately the letter is already too long to discuss rules of engagement. This country would benefit from adhering to the Geneva Conventions concerning “innocent civiliansâ€. From my Navy experience pulverizing a major enemy base in Vietnam, I especially liked the clear and obvious reading of Articles 28 and 29 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The VC were clearly responsible for any civilian deaths on the base. Those civilians qualified as Protected Persons within the enemy’s physical control, and could not be used to render certain points and areas immune from military operations. The passages furnished the basis for rules of engagement we followed when attacking a base camp in a mangrove swamp that was a legitimate military target. Our task force permanently shattered in 1971 the last VC main force unit, forcing it to surrender initiative to the South Vietnamese.
Geneva Convention/Fourth Geneva Convention
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fourth_Geneva_Convention
Obama’s nuanced resurrection of containment for itinerant terrorists and rogue states ignores George Kennan’s preeminent policy definition for Cold War actions in his “1,000 Word Telegramâ€. For him the Cold War would require worldwide economic domination against the Soviet Union governing apparatus. Marist/Leninist worldview mirrored traditional Russian ruling class neurotic insecurities about retaining power, despite archaic, fragile political systems. The Soviet Union would opportunistically employ strategies short of war to advance control internally, and undermine Western nations. The Soviet Union would not risk national resources and stature against adversaries possessing sufficient power, and demonstrating clear readiness to use it. The Soviets would not pursue the hazardous, systematic plans of a Hitlerite Germany.
Containment parallels do not apply to the Global War on Terror (GWOT). Wahhabi/Salafi heresy teaches Jews, Christians, Sunnis, Shi’as, and secularists are legitimate objects for systematic slaughter. Terrorists claiming this heresy substitute limitless murder for traditional Muslim loyalties valuing family, tribe, and ethnicity. Their Caliphate can as easily rise from embers of this current world as within populations submissive to their savagery.
Victory instead requires vigorous, costly engagement along the full spectrum of diplomacy with lavish application of military force. Engagement focuses continuous attacks against terrorist leadership, communications, and infrastructure. Engagement requires supporting African, Oriental and Asian country initiatives for viable national governments that marginalize terrorists. By frustrating plans, breaking alliances, and fracturing organizations, terrorists retain ever less effective units. Without cities or countries bin Laden, ISIS leaders, and successor sociopaths, live out unnaturally shortened lives as pariahs.
Obama on ISIS: “We Have Contained Them”
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2015/11/13/obama_on_isis_we_have_contained_them.html
George Kennan’s 1,000 Word Telegram
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan.htm
Frontline: Saudi Time Bomb:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saudi/
Obama: “Not Interested in Winning”
http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/11/obama_not_interested_in_winning.html
And closer to home and this Syrian refugee issue, the Constitutional requirements mandated against Obama and the feds as probably the main reason for creating the feds - to provide for the common defense - is to REPEL INVASIONS (Art I, Sec 8, Cl 15). Failure to do so should result in impeachment and Congress must step up to shut down this invasion. Individual states are already doing so.