DESTROYING ISIL FOREVER
In a nutshell:
The history of Radical Islamic Terrorism begins shortly after the death of Muhammed with the Old Man of the Mountains and his Assassins, the first Radical Islamist Terrorists. And the history always played out the same way: the Radicals, promising enlightened rule by Allah's statutes, would overthrow the Brutal Ruler; then the equally Corrupt Clerics would be overthrown by the oppressed population led by a strongman who became the next Brutal Ruler; leading to Radical Cleric opposition and. . .; ad infinitum.
The defeat of Radical Islam has always, and only, been accomplished by a violent crackdown on the radicals.
With the advent of modern travel, Radical Islamists stymied in overthrowing the Brutal Ruler in situ blame the degenerate and prosperous Western Nations for propping up the brutal regimes and strike there. Hence 9/11 and the subsequent (and previous) attacks.
To stop the Terrorism temporarily, we must destroy them as in the past. Generals testifying before Congress should not be saying, as they do, "We see ISIL training camps in Libya", but rather, "We destroyed ISIL training camps in Libya." Every time a base, camp, or headquarters is discovered (of any Radical Islamist group worldwide), it should be bombed and the fighters reduced to living in caves and basements. Then they can be struck in those locations by Special Ops fighters and regular troops, most of whom should be natives of the region/state. With our air support, both direct as in bombing and auxiliary as in medivac helicopters, all of the Radical Islamists could in short order be destroyed as effective fighting units.
But that only stops the cycle for now. It will reappear.
The solution to the Radical Islamist problem, then, is to stop this constant see-saw between Totalitarian Dictatorship and Islamic Theocracy. The Islamic countries must be brought out of tribalism and via the rule of law into nationhood. This is what we had begun to do in Iraq until President Obama pulled all troops out.
All of the candidates, Right and Left, have voiced that they will hit the Terrorists and destroy them, then pull our troops back home. And so we play whack-a-mole with the problem. Unless there is an honest broker to help forge the various tribes into a nation, not by force but by allowing trust to be gained between factions, we will have to return 5, 10, 15 years later and again put down a terrorist insurgency. See my article "Nation Building".
In a nutshell:
The history of Radical Islamic Terrorism begins shortly after the death of Muhammed with the Old Man of the Mountains and his Assassins, the first Radical Islamist Terrorists. And the history always played out the same way: the Radicals, promising enlightened rule by Allah's statutes, would overthrow the Brutal Ruler; then the equally Corrupt Clerics would be overthrown by the oppressed population led by a strongman who became the next Brutal Ruler; leading to Radical Cleric opposition and. . .; ad infinitum.
The defeat of Radical Islam has always, and only, been accomplished by a violent crackdown on the radicals.
With the advent of modern travel, Radical Islamists stymied in overthrowing the Brutal Ruler in situ blame the degenerate and prosperous Western Nations for propping up the brutal regimes and strike there. Hence 9/11 and the subsequent (and previous) attacks.
To stop the Terrorism temporarily, we must destroy them as in the past. Generals testifying before Congress should not be saying, as they do, "We see ISIL training camps in Libya", but rather, "We destroyed ISIL training camps in Libya." Every time a base, camp, or headquarters is discovered (of any Radical Islamist group worldwide), it should be bombed and the fighters reduced to living in caves and basements. Then they can be struck in those locations by Special Ops fighters and regular troops, most of whom should be natives of the region/state. With our air support, both direct as in bombing and auxiliary as in medivac helicopters, all of the Radical Islamists could in short order be destroyed as effective fighting units.
But that only stops the cycle for now. It will reappear.
The solution to the Radical Islamist problem, then, is to stop this constant see-saw between Totalitarian Dictatorship and Islamic Theocracy. The Islamic countries must be brought out of tribalism and via the rule of law into nationhood. This is what we had begun to do in Iraq until President Obama pulled all troops out.
All of the candidates, Right and Left, have voiced that they will hit the Terrorists and destroy them, then pull our troops back home. And so we play whack-a-mole with the problem. Unless there is an honest broker to help forge the various tribes into a nation, not by force but by allowing trust to be gained between factions, we will have to return 5, 10, 15 years later and again put down a terrorist insurgency. See my article "Nation Building".