Will Killing The Leaders Of The Islamic State And Al Qaeda End The War?

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Tim Lister, CNN: Who must be killed to beat ISIS and al Qaeda?

(CNN) Every other week, it seems, U.S. officials disclose that another "key" terror commander has been eliminated -- in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan, etc.

The list this month includes Muhsin al Fadhli, leader of the Khorasan Group -- an al Qaeda offshoot in Syria -- and Abu Khalil al-Sudani, a senior figure in al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

And yet progress in degrading (let alone eradicating) groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), al Qaeda, Al-Shabaab and the Taliban is fiendishly difficult to measure.

WNU Editor: Killing terror leaders does have an impact on terror operations .... but to win this war .... which has been primarily ideological and religious .... you have to defeat it on the battlefield of ideas. Unfortunately .... the reluctance among many of our western leaders to identify and call out the role that radical Islam has in groups like the Islamic State has not helped .... but fortunately .... some Arab leaders are now identifying the problem and calling for a response .... Egypt’s al-Sisi Makes Extraordinary Speech on Islam (PJ Media).