If You Want To Stop ISIS, Here Is What It Will Take

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The Federalist: If You Want To Stop ISIS, Here Is What It Will Take

Killing the Islamic State requires neither more nor less than waging war

By Angelo Codevilla AUGUST 25, 2014

The Islamic State’ video-dissemination of one of its goons beheading an American is an existential challenge from which we cannot afford to shrink. Until the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL/IS) did that, it made sense for the U.S. government to help contain it because the Islamic world, which the IS threatens most directly, must destroy it sooner or later. But internetting that beheading was a gory declaration of America’s impotence—a dare-by-deed that is sure to move countless young persons around the globe to get in on killing us, anywhere they can. The longer the Islamic State survives, the more will take up its dare. Either we kill the IS, or we will deserve the wave of terrorism that will engulf us.

 

Killing the IS requires neither more nor less than waging war—not as the former administration waged its “war on terror,” nor by the current administration’s pinpricks, nor according to the too-clever-by-half stratagems taught in today’s politically correct military war colleges, but rather by war in the dictionary meaning of the word.

[Draggingtree]

Okay, So We Bomb ISIS, Then What?

August 24, 2014 at 5:03 pm ( 16 hours ago )

 

You hawks got what you were asking for. We’re dropping bombs on Iraq again. Whether we’re calling it that yet or not, the Third Iraq War is on.

http://ricochet.com/okay-so-we-bomb-isis-then-what/

[Valin]

Okay, So We Bomb ISIS, Then What?

August 24, 2014 at 5:03 pm ( 16 hours ago )

 

You hawks got what you were asking for. We’re dropping bombs on Iraq again. Whether we’re calling it that yet or not, the Third Iraq War is on.

http://ricochet.com/okay-so-we-bomb-isis-then-what/

 

 

 

As opposed to......What?

[SrWoodchuck]

 

Okay, So We Bomb ISIS, Then What?

August 24, 2014 at 5:03 pm ( 16 hours ago )

 

You hawks got what you were asking for. We’re dropping bombs on Iraq again. Whether we’re calling it that yet or not, the Third Iraq War is on.

http://ricochet.com/okay-so-we-bomb-isis-then-what/

 

 

 

As opposed to......What?

 

 

This, @Valin:

 

 

 

Pic via CreepingSharia

[Valin]

@SrWoodchuck

 

Yes?

[SrWoodchuck]

@SrWoodchuck

 

Yes?

 

@Valin

 

!

[Draggingtree]

Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Posted on | August 26, 2014

There seems to be some confusion about President Obama’s “foreign policy.” At times, it has been alleged that he actually has a policy, but these allegations have never been substantiated. My perception, after watching this administration’s actions for the past five years, is that the “foreign policy” is just one continual ad hoc improvisation.

It’s not a Mozart concerto, it’s bebop jazz. For example:

 

The White House is struggling to deliver a clear message on the threat posed by radical Islamist group ISIS and what the administration might do to counteract it.

Officials have sowed confusion by giving different statements at different times on the level of danger posed by the Islamic group, whose full name is the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Obama’s decision last year to ask Congress for authority to level Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces with air strikes is also haunting the administration as it mulls strikes in Syria against ISIS. There have been no guarantees that similar Congressional approval will be sought this time around.

http://theothermccain.com/2014/08/26/nobel-peace-prize-winner/

[Draggingtree]

 

Okay, So We Bomb ISIS, Then What?

August 24, 2014 at 5:03 pm ( 16 hours ago )

 

You hawks got what you were asking for. We’re dropping bombs on Iraq again. Whether we’re calling it that yet or not, the Third Iraq War is on.

http://ricochet.com/okay-so-we-bomb-isis-then-what/

 

 

 

As opposed to......What?

 

Caution your about to enter the spin zone

[Valin]

@Draggingtree

 

2 simple questions politicians/pundits/we the great unwashed should always ask

1. What do you want to do?

2. And then what happens?

 

As regard Iraq today, I am surprised that anyone is surprised....(note apply the same to Afghanistan). Memo to the anti-war left and the isolationist right....When America retreats from the world, nothing good happens. Both these groups got what they wanted...how's that workin out?

 

[Draggingtree]

MYRON MAGNET

An Ounce of Prevention

 

What should we do about the ISIS threat to the U.S.?

 

25 August 2014

When a British-educated Muslim terrorist beheads an American journalist to display the sentiments of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria toward the United States; when photos of a Chicago office building and the White House appear on social media with hard-to-deny evidence in the pictures that ISIS is here in our own country with ill intent; when a peace-preaching imam in Canada reports that ISIS is recruiting among his flock; when an experienced U.S. senator warns of ISIS plans to blow up an American city; and when a top ex-intelligence officer cautions that ISIS terrorists have “very likely” entered the United States along with the flood of illegal immigrants surging through our southern border, what would a responsible president do?

 

Surely, for starters, he would use the National Guard to seal the border with Mexico, as a matter of national security, let alone national sovereignty.

 

It is emphatically true that not all Muslims are terrorists—that indeed very few American Muslims are. But it is no less true that most terrorists are Muslims.

http://city-journal.com/2014/eon0825mm.html

[Draggingtree]

August 26, 2014

How Best Not to Respond to ISIS

By Jeffrey Folks

For the left, American power must never be exercised except in the direst of situations, and even then, it must not be a unilateral exercise of power.

 

This is the logic underlying the White House response to ISIS, or the Islamic State, as it calls itself. At this time, the U.S. military has the capacity to obliterate this gang of thugs with a relatively modest projection of force. If the administration continues to drag its feet, it will be much harder. Yet Obama continues to drag his feet, because he believes that America “leads from behind.”

 

Never in our history has a president enunciated such a nonsensical foreign policy. To begin with, “lead from behind” is a childish oxymoron – the sort of mantra this administration invents to suppress thought and discussion rather than to encourage them. “Lead from behind” is a mindless contradiction, and as such it suggests that Obama’s foreign policy is either mindless and contradictory or that it is not foreign policy at all. It is simply made up as events unfold.

 

http://americanthinker.com/2014/08/how_best_not_to_respond_to_isis.html

[Draggingtree]

The Drums of War Beat For ISIS but is Obama Ready?

By: Aaron Gardner (Diary) | August 27th, 2014 at 02:18 PM

 

As more and more have come out to raise the alarm on ISIS, news has come that the Obama Administration wants new ISIS war plans, which may include operations in Syria, as soon as possible. According to the Daily Beast, “President Obama wants to decide by the end of the week whether or not his war in Iraq against the Islamic State will expand to the group’s haven in eastern Syria.”

 

This new sense of urgency around ISIS from the media and the Obama Administration is encouraging to see. The Islamic State isn’t going to go away and the atrocities it will commit under the banner of a twisted political and religious philosophy will only increase in frequency and horror if ISIS is allowed to continue its course without the intervention of U.S. Forces.

 

This is a reality that President Obama has been reluctant to fully recognize. President Obama is the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Military.

http://www.redstate.com/2014/08/27/drums-war-beat-isis-obama-ready/

[Draggingtree]

ISIS And The Perils Of Moral Clarity

Moral clarity in recognizing the evils of ISIS can sometimes stop us from asking hard questions about how we plan to deal with them.

By Michael J. Boyle AUGUST 27, 2014

I appreciate the thoughtful, well-argued response in The Federalist to my New York Times piece, and I am going to take this opportunity to respond to some of the points raised, because I think they are serious and worth a vigorous debate between friends. On this issue, and on others, I believe people of good conscience can reasonably disagree, while learning from the other side, as I have from the response’s author, Paul David Miller, many times over the years.

 

I don’t disagree that the Islamic State’s (ISIS’s) actions—the horrific beheading of James Foley, the killing, rape, assault and eviction of thousands—should be described as evil. I have never denied the existence of evil in the world, and it would be foolish to suggest that no action or, indeed, group should ever be described as evil based on their behavior. There are instances of clear moral evil in international politics—

http://thefederalist.com/2014/08/27/isis-and-the-perils-of-moral-clarity/

[Draggingtree]

In Syria, ISIS and Assad Must Both Lose

AUGUST 28, 2014 By Robert Tracinski

Has anyone thought about what we’re going to have to do about the Islamic State—I mean, really thought about it?

 

It has become obvious that the group that calls itself ISIS or just the Islamic State is the most serious terrorist threat to the United States since 9/11, and allowing its formation is the biggest mistake of President Obama’s administration.

 

Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel recently called ISIS “a force and a dimension that the world has never seen before.” It is not just a terrorist group distinguished by its brutality and fanaticism. It is not just a group that has demonstrated its interest in killing Americans. Worst of all, this is a group filled with an unprecedented number of jihadists from Europe, and even a few from America—

http://thefederalist.com/2014/08/28/in-syria-isis-and-assad-must-both-lose/

[Draggingtree]

You Can't Understand ISIS If You Don't Know the History of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia

Alastair Crooke Posted:08/27/2014 11:56 am EDT Updated:

 

BEIRUT -- The dramatic arrival of Da'ish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed -- and horrified -- by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabia's ambivalence in the face of this manifestation both troubling and inexplicable, wondering, "Don't the Saudis understand that ISIS threatens them, too?"

 

It appears -- even now -- that Saudi Arabia's ruling elite is divided. Some applaud that ISIS is fighting Iranian Shiite "fire" with Sunni "fire"; that a new Sunni state is taking shape at the very heart of what they regard as a historical Sunni patrimony; and they are drawn by Da'ish's strict Salafist ideology.

 

Other Saudis are more fearful, and recall the history of the revolt against Abd-al Aziz by the Wahhabist Ikhwan (Disclaimer: this Ikhwan has nothing to do with the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan -- please note, all further references hereafter are to the Wahhabist Ikhwan, and not to the Muslim Brotherhood Ikhwan), but which nearly imploded Wahhabism and the al-Saud in the late 1920s

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/isis-wahhabism-saudi-arabia_b_5717157.html

[Draggingtree]

A Bad Case for Allying with Assad

By DANIEL LARISON • August 26, 2014, 3:42 PM

 

Richard Haass unwisely jumps on the “ally with Assad” bandwagon:

 

Such a policy change would be costly but not as costly as a scenario in which Isis could use Syrian territory from which to mount attacks on the region and beyond. The Assad government may be evil – but it is a lesser evil than Isis, and a local one. Such an accommodation would require a great deal of diplomacy if it were to succeed. Understandings would have to be reached with Damascus, with the mostly secular opposition, much depleted by three years of brutal battles against Isis and the regime; and with outside backers (mainly Iran and Saudi Arabia) about how Syria was to be run, both now and in the future, and what would happen in liberated areas.

 

As is often the case, the more attractive options may not be feasible, while the option that could prove feasible would present distinct difficulties.

 

The sudden interest in collaborating with a regime that until very recently Haasswanted the U.S. to bomb is seriously misguided, but it tells us something important about the confusion that threat inflation can cause. Prior to this summer,

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/haass-bad-case-for-allying-with-assad/

[SrWoodchuck]

Tale of a Fairy:

 

 

Via TheGatesOfVienna

[SrWoodchuck]

The Barbarism of the Jihadists: In the Name of the Sword
http://gatesofvienna.net/2014/08/bursting-the-bonds-of-civilization/#more-34103

Argumentation is pointless: The jihadists of the “Islamic State” eliminate all limitations which we have internalised in the course of the civilisational process. Combat allows them to give in completely to their instincts.

by Leon de Winter

Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine
Translation: Rembrandt Clancy

20 August 2014

Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Andrei Rublev” is among the masterpieces of cinema. It tells the true life story of an inspired icon painter and priest. The film is set against the background of 15th century Russia. In one scene, Tartars raid the city of Vladimir. They slaughter whomever crosses their path: they mutilate, rape, steal. Tarkovsky shows masterfully the feeling with which these Asiatic hordes apply their procedure — they kill with great abandon.

In the close-ups of the murderers, we look in horror at the ardent excitement in their faces. These men, having discarded all civilising inhibitions, can yield to the most primitive of their urges and impulses. They have achieved the ultimate liberation. Because they are completely unfeeling and because they reduce other men to objects of lust and subjugation, they have reached the zenith of their sexual potency and are able to act quite openly like beasts.

The current television images and the jihad videos on YouTube remind me of this scene, one of the most arresting in the history of cinema. If we ask ourselves how the Bedouin of the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century or the Mongols in the thirteenth century conquered and plundered the world — the “Islamic state” (IS) shows us how they proceeded. They were driven by the wild desire to destroy and conquer everything which fell to their inclination.

The liberating Jihad

The regular armies of modern times must discipline the destructive energies of young men and direct them into organised paths. The provisions of the laws of war are to be observed; one must not engage in brutal behaviour unnecessarily, and commanders must be aware of the proportionality of means and avoid collateral damage. None of these things are of any concern to the fighters of the “Islamic State”. By committing themselves to jihad, they throw off the bonds of civilized behaviour. We facing the gratified visage of naked savagery.

Whoever is possessed by jihad has exceptional power. In an orgiastic fever he can rape, kill and plunder. Owing to the brainwashing which he encountered, he knows that this course of action is legitimised by his religion. And when he dies, he will go straight to heaven, where seventy-two virgins are waiting to attend upon him for all eternity. The IS fighters are an incarnation of everything that was channelled [kanalisiert] in the course of becoming civilised; namely, the sexual and destructive energies of young men. Jihad, as we have come to see, can turn this process around, and the energies and urges which young men must suppress in a civilised society are given a new focus.

 

 

Via TheGatesOfVienna

[Draggingtree]

SAS troops, Hornets in frame for Iraq mission

THE AUSTRALIAN AUGUST 30, 2014 12:00AM

Greg Sheridan Foreign Editor Melbourne

THE Abbott government is considering deploying SAS soldiers, F18 Super Hornet jet fighters and sophisticated airborne early- warning and control aircraft as part of a military contribution to US-led efforts in Iraq. The government has consistently ruled out the deployment of Australian combat forces on the ground in Iraq. However, special forces such as the SAS are not conventional combat ground forces. Their deployment would not breach the government’s commitment.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/sas-troops-hornets-in-frame-for-iraq-mission/story-e6frg8yo-1227041961078

[SrWoodchuck]

Judicial Watch: Feds’ Bulletin Describes Threat of Imminent Terrorist Attack on Southern Border

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/386694/judicial-watch-feds-bulletin-describes-threat-imminent-terrorist-attack-southern

 

For those of us who’ve been raising alarms about both the jihadist threat and the national-security vulnerability created by the Obama administration’s non-enforcement of the immigration laws, this is not a surprise — particularly less than two weeks before September 11. But it is nonetheless jarring to read. Judicial Watch has just put out this statement:

 

Islamic terrorist groups are operating in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez and planning to attack the United States with car bombs or other vehicle born improvised explosive devices (VBIED). High-level federal law enforcement, intelligence and other sources have confirmed to Judicial Watch that a warning bulletin for an imminent terrorist attack on the border has been issued. Agents across a number of Homeland Security, Justice and Defense agencies have all been placed on alert and instructed to aggressively work all possible leads and sources concerning this imminent terrorist threat.

 

Specifically, Judicial Watch sources reveal that the militant group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) is confirmed to now be operating in Juarez, a famously crime-infested narcotics hotbed situated across from El Paso, Texas. Violent crimes are so rampant in Juarez that the U.S. State Department has issued a number of travel warnings for anyone planning to go there. The last one was issued just a few days ago.

 

Intelligence officials have picked up radio talk and chatter indicating that the terrorist groups are going to “carry out an attack on the border,” according to one JW source. “It’s coming very soon,” according to this high-level source, who clearly identified the groups planning the plots as “ISIS and Al Qaeda.” An attack is so imminent that the commanding general at Ft. Bliss, the U.S. Army post in El Paso, is being briefed, another source confirms. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not respond to multiple inquiries from Judicial Watch, both telephonic and in writing, about this information.

 

The disturbing inside intelligence comes on the heels of news reports revealing that U.S. intelligence has picked up increased chatter among Islamist terror networks approaching the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. While these terrorists reportedly plan their attack just outside the U.S., President Obama admits that “we don’t have a strategy yet” to combat ISIS. “I don’t want to put the cart before the horse,” the commander-in-chief said this week during a White House press briefing. “I think what I’ve seen in some of the news reports suggest that folks are getting a little further ahead of what we’re at than what we currently are.”

 

The administration has also covered up, or at the very least downplayed, a serious epidemic of crime along the Mexican border even as heavily armed drug cartels have taken over portions of the region. Judicial Watch has reported that the U.S. Border Patrol actually ordered officers to avoid the most crime-infested stretches because they’re “too dangerous” and patrolling them could result in an “international incident” of cross border shooting.

 

 

JudicialWatch via NRO via Wirecutter

[Draggingtree]

Fox’s Andrea Tantaros refuses to apologize for what she said about ISIS

by Joshua Riddle on August 30, 2014 in Front Page, Media, Terrorism

The Asian American Journalists Association is in full on freak out mode and demands an apology from the Fox News host Andrea Tantaros who said this about ISIS: “You can’t solve it with a dialogue. You can’t solve it with a summit. You solve it with a bullet to the head. It’s the only thing these people understand.” […]

Read more: http://youngcons.com/#ixzz3BzCqA7i2

[SrWoodchuck]

 

Via TheoSpark

[Draggingtree]

Rogers: Obama DOES Have A Foreign Policy Strategy -- Do Nothing At least he's being consistent

8.31.2014 Trey Sanchez News

Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Rogers detailed President Obama's foreign policy strategy on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace -- do nothing.

 

Rogers said that Obama's handling of foreign policy is "unfortunately consistent" with his past actions. He warns that because of Obama's persistent failure to lead, America's allies are no longer counting on its help. Rogers explained:

Well, unfortunately, we find it consistent with his past policy and actions on foreign policy. It shows, and I think, exemplifies his foreign policy is in absolute free fall

 

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/rogers-obama-does-have-foreign-policy-strategy-do-nothing

[Valin]

Germany to Send Rifles, Tank Busters to Aid Kurds

BERLIN Aug 31, 2014

FRANK JORDANS Associated Press

 

Germany will send high-end rifles, tank-busting weapons and armored vehicles to aid Kurdish fighters battling Islamic extremists in Iraq, officials said Sunday.

 

Germany's defense minister said the arms would be sent in three shipments, starting in September, and would initially be enough to equip a brigade of 4,000 Peshmerga fighters.

 

"This is in our security interest," Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Berlin.

 

Germany joins other European countries who have pledged to provide arms to the Kurds fighting the Islamic State group that has swept into northern Iraq in recent months.

 

The shipments will include 8,000 G36 assault rifles and the same number of G3 rifles, as well as ammunition; 200 Panzerfaust 3 bazookas and 30 long-range MILAN anti-tank systems; and five heavily armored Dingo infantry vehicles.

 

(Snip)

[Draggingtree]

Qatar’s Role

Posted on

 

31 August 2014

by eehines

There seems to be quite a bit of…dissembling?…here, and it’s not all Qatar’s.

 

On the matter of whether Qatar supports terrorism while hosting our military base, there’sthis from Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen:

 

Press reports indicate that the Qatari government is also supporting extremist groups operating in Syria. To say the least, this threatens to aggravate….

 

Wait. What? The US’ State Department gets its intel from the press? Well, that would be consistent with President Barack Obama only knowing what’s going on in the world from newspaper articles.

http://aplebessite.com/2014/08/31/qatars-role/