Michael Knights, War On the Rocks: Campaign Acceleration: How To Build On Progress And Avoid Stalemate Against ISIL
There seems to be a perception in the West that the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is stalemated on the main battlefields of Iraq and Syria. That’s probably true in northwestern and central Syria, where ISIL and the Russian- and Iranian-backed Assad regime are containing and eroding progress by rebel forces. By contrast, there has been a mixture of frustrations and solid achievements in Iraq and eastern Syria. ISIL still holds Mosul, Raqqa, Ramadi and a number of other major Iraqi and Syrian towns. But Baghdad, Erbil, Samarra, Kirkuk and Haditha were denied to the enemy. And Mosul Dam, Jurf as-Sakr, Kobane, Tikrit, Tal Abyad and Bayji were recaptured alongside scores of less well-known settlements.
WNU Editor: I have lost count on how many times we have been told that the Islamic State will be defeated .... but nothing happens. How can a small ragtag group of fighters .... with many from around the world .... confront a coalition of major powers, hundreds of thousands of troops, and with the best weaponry that money can buy .... that is a question that sorely needs to be analysed and answered.
7 comments:
WNU,
As you have pointed out innumerable times the West has tied it's hands behind it's back with political considerations. A good analogy for the West's recent and current strategy is that ISIS to them represents a large over inflated balloon which if they keep pricking with pins will quickly deflate and blow away. A more accurate analogy is that ISIS started as a small rock rolling down from the mountain top and has now gathered many large boulders and become an avalanche descending upon the pin holders. Would have been easy to have stopped at 16, 12, and 8 months ago but not now. Not without the breaking of a lot of political promises that the West is still unprepared to do.
ok thank
"Hundreds of thousands of troops"? Maybe, but not where they would make a difference. Make no mistake, they'd fold like wet tissue if there was a serious army deployment from any major country. America, Russia, Turkey... any could do it, but they won't.
The NHL hockey star Bobby Clark was asked how he managed to win so many face offs. His response, you have to want it more than the other guy. Same with ISIS, they want it more.
Tropps and weapons in barracks thousands of miles away do not a li erating force make.
Time to get real, folks. The rest of the world knows that "ISIS" is a pawn of the USA, Turkey, the Sunni Gulf monarchies, and Israel, with Sunni Jordan playing a logistical role. Those nations arm ISIS, they train ISIS. We see the photos ISIS jihadis post to Twitter and Facebook, showing them using US-made TOW missiles and M16s, Israeli Tavors, and MRAPS built in the UAE and Jordan. John McCain was photographed with "Al Baghdadi" on a visit to Syria, for heaven's sake. ISIS are "our boys".
In truth, ISIS is a rag-tag collection of various Sunni mercenary forces and religious extremist volunteers, almost none of whom refer to themselves as "ISIS". "ISIS" is a "brand name" designed to resonate with Western audiences, hence its acronym name sounds good in English but doesn't work in Arabic, Turkish, or Farsi. ISIS is "branding" affectation used to package the concept of an impossibly successful geurilla force to gullible Western populations. (In that sense, it's much like the Free Syrian Army. Existing as a concept, but not as a fighting force.)
"hundreds of thousands of troops" behind pilots, who often do not drop bomb ain't going to do much.
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