Let’s think the unthinkable: Could the Islamic State win?
I say “unthinkable” because, discouraged as everyone has become, most commentary stops short of imagining what an Islamic State victory in the Middle East would look like. The common conviction is that the group is so evil it simply must be defeated — it will just take time.
But let’s test that proposition and think for a minute about what it would take for the group to win. What would success look like for the Islamic State? Essentially, it would amount to the group holding, for the foreseeable future, the core of what it has conquered — roughly half of Iraq and Syria — and exercising a rudimentary sort of governance there, in what it calls its “caliphate.”
WNU Editor: John McClaughlin nails it when he makes the following remark on training Iraq's military ....
.... People don’t fight because they’ve been trained; they fight because they believe in something. At present, the biggest believers in the region are with the Islamic State.
Indeed.
Update: An interesting analysis from the Economist .... The state of the caliphate: The fortunes of war (The Economist)
Nonsense !!
ReplyDeleteThese are people without human decency and harboring a grudge. Crediting them with following a belief serves no one save those who benefit from publishing such nonsense.
Recognize them for what they are and eliminate them as expeditiously as practical.
"Can the Islamic State win?" A better question to ask would be, "can the Islamic State be defeated?" Supposedly the man who wrote this was once a top official at CIA. It appears the people working there now are every bit as incompetent as he seems to be and this guy is now a college professor!! This way he not only gets to continue being incompetent but he gets to spread his incompetence far and wide.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this link. It is illuminating to be reminded just how incompetent US leadership is at present.
ISIS has captured and held territory at a faster rate and more efficiently than the US ever could have and it enjoys broad support through out the Middle East, the US, and the so called "west." As such, US military leaders and intelligence personnel need to be studying the strategy and tactics of ISIS to try and learn.
If there smart enough to do this, the United States may just manage to survive and perhaps even thrive. With all due respect asking if ISIS can win is about asking if lion has a strong bite!! It seems rather obvious they can.
The American people do not understand the dangers posed to them by Islamic terrorists and other enemies they face. If they did, it would lead to mass panic and would not be good for business which ultimately affects the tax revenue available and the borrowing ability necessary to fund the welfare state. As such, the American people cannot be told the truth.
Additionally telling the truth on this undermines the popular sport of demonizing America. For this to work, the country has to be made out to be more powerful than it really is. Unfortunately some in leadership may begin to believe their own lies!!