ISIS, Five Step Strategy
We are in the midst of mourning another terrorist attack. This one a lone-wolf attack in Orlando, Florida but the worst attack on U.S. soil since 9/11/2001. Now we have 49 dead and 53 wounded, some critically. The shooter was inspired by ISIS but not directed by them. He even took time out of his three-hour shoot spree to call 911 and the local TV station to be sure that everyone including ISIS know what he was doing and how successful his shooting rampage was coming out.
There is only one way to stop lone-wolf terrorist attacks—stop ISIS successes throughout the Caliphate, IRAQ, Syria, Libya, Yemen, others. This requires a comprehensive military victory in the Middle East. My five-point strategy is very broad, I know, but these are the items that need to be accomplished to stop the atrocities in the middle east and the terrorist’s attacks in the US and Europe. Start with broad brush headings and build details as we go.
Here is my comprehensive list:
1. Military victory by retaking Fallujah, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqah in Syria.
2. Cutting off supply lines to ISIS primarily by sealing the Turkish border
3. Reduce or eliminate cash flow to ISIS through U S Treasury department sanctions and military actions where possible
4. Control ISIS’s cyber capabilities—social networks and the Internet
5. Negotiate with ISIS for a peaceful settlement once we have a strong enough position with them to guarantee a successful contract for us.
In the U S, this is pretty much a hawkish political posture. It does not mesh with President Obama’s strategy very well nor does it with Secretary Clinton’s proposed platform if she is elected president. Don’t get me wrong, I am a life-time democrat and at my age of 82, that’s a long time. In fact, I cast my first vote for a Democrat in 1956, Adlai Stevens. Even though I am a life-time democrat, I believe we need military action to finish this war. Now.
We need 20,000 to 30,000 boots on the ground in Iraq and Syria right now, maybe more. That’s not all. That’s just the part from the U. S. We are supposed to be part of a coalition with Saudia Arabia, Iraq, and lots of other middle east and European countries. Where are they? Where is the coalition. We probably need 100,000 total.
Our military leaders have already agreed with my idea to overtake these three cities of Fallujah, Mosul and Raqqah. But they don’t seem to be making much progress. Let’s get the troops into those three cities and get them under control. That’s probably enough to get ISIS to the negotiating table, but maybe not.
Remember when the senior George Bush took us into Kuwait. We went in and within a few days after the ground attack we had defeated Sad am Hussein’s elite forces and all the rest of his army. We can do that against ISIS but like I have said before, no more half-assed wars, we have to go in to win the war and when we do with all our allies, we will defeat ISIS. The people they are occupying will be very glad to see us in charge. And peace will more nearly prevail in that part of the world.
Unfortunately, when the war is won, when those three cities are captured, we will still have to occupy the area. That will take a long time for peace to sink in. Peace is a good thing. It’s not something that Allah or God would want to have happening.
We need to seal off the ISIS supply lines too. Much of their supplies comes through Turkey. We work with Turkey to close down their borders and we use our air superiority to bomb trucks carrying supplies from Turkey and other places to the ISIS troops and administrators. We can close down their supply lines but we have to focus on that. It’s just as important as military action. Actually, it is military action, just not so much as hand-to-hand infantry fighting.
The other step we need to take is to cut off their cash flow. ISIS gets most of their funds through stealing oil, kidnapping ransoms, and some contributions from wealthy supporters. Our U.S. Treasury has an entire division assigned to apply sanctions against terrorist’s cash flows.
But guess what? Our leader of that organization is still working as a temporary Director because Congress has not confirmed him into the job. You need to get on the phone and in the mail with your Senator and Congressman and tell them to get him confirmed and new laws passed where necessary to cut off the cash flow to ISIS. This is something we can do with no loss of life and at relatively little expense. Let’s focus on stopping the cash flow to ISIS. They cannot make payroll or buy ammunition without cash.
Most of their inspiration of terrorists in the U.S. come through cyber channels. ISIS has proven itself expert at using the Internet and the Social Networks like Facebook and Twitter, to recruit new personnel for fighting in the Middle East and for carrying out terror attacks in the U.S. We’re just as smart as they are with the Internet. We invented it. At least a lot of it. We can stop their successful use of cyber space for carrying out warfare against us. We are at war with them. We have to put some restrictions on them.
Finally, we need to get to the point where we can negotiate with them. That’s will not be easy but I think it can be done and it is better than having an objective to kills every ISIS member in the world. Some people say we don’t want to negotiate with terrorists. I disagree but we need to negotiate with them from a position of strength so that we don’t get ourselves back into the same position we started.
President Obama, please listen to me. We need military action, with boots on the ground. We need to stop ISIS now in Iraq and Syria, Libya. We need to stop the spread of the Caliphate and we need to help the rational people in that part of the world get their lives, their markets, and their society back to civilization again. There once was a time when Arabian nations were leaders in science, mathematics, technology. They would benefit from a return to that type of world and we would enjoy them as a contributing member of society instead of a destructive one.
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