Defeating ISIS: Just Shoot Him Dad

Defeating ISIS: Just Shoot Him Dad

Gary Anderson

 President Obama’s complicated and drawn out strategy for dealing with the Islamic State reminds one of an Austin Powers movie where Dr. Evil has captured Austin and explains his Rube Goldberg plan to kill his captive in excruciating detail. Frustrated, the villain’s son says “Dad, just shoot him!”

Obama’s refusal to seriously consider the use of ground combat forces to destroy the army of the Islamic State reflects a continuing inability on his part, and that of his senior political advisors, to understand the nature of enemy. If you do not understand the enemy, you can’t beat him. The Obama administration believes that it is fighting an insurgency. In Syria and Iraq, the would-be caliphate has already accomplished the goal of any insurgency; it is now running a functioning, if dystopian, state. ISIS has a regular army, collects taxes, delivers some form of social services, and runs a brutal but efficient judiciary.

Abroad, the Islamic State does encourage and conduct terror, but its appeal to would-be insurgents and terrorists is that it has projected the image of being a winner to young Muslims in countries where they see themselves as losers who are denied the self-dignity and self-respect that they crave. Everyone wants to go with a winner, and if we do not destroy the winner image, the ISIS movement will continue to expand world-wide.

The president is acting on a false assumption that American troops will be needed for years in the region to destroy the power of the Islamic State. American troops are needed to destroy the regular army of ISIS and liberate the cities that it has occupied. Once an area is liberated, there are a number of options for occupying and rebuilding the Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria freed from ISIS occupation that does not include US forces.

Allies such as the UAE and Jordan are willing participate if they see progress; at the present time, they are frustrated with the American lack of decisive action and leadership, but they would probably be willing to act as temporary mandate overseers in the Sunni areas now under Islamic State control. Remnants of the former caliphate would doubtless engage in guerilla warfare, but Sunni troops are much more capable of dealing with Sunni insurgents than are westerners.

In Iraq, the administration could use its clout to convince the Shiite dominated government to form a Sunni-led organization to conduct post-ISIS counterinsurgency operations as well as military governance once Islamic State main force units are destroyed. The Kurds are obviously capable of administrating liberated Kurdish populated areas. The Obama administration talks the talk of coalition building. This is a chance for it to show it can walk the walk.

Building a post- Islamic State governance coalition is a hard political-diplomatic challenge, but that is the kind of thing that the State Department does best. However, only American power can quickly and decisively defeat the conventional military power of the Islamic State. In some ways, the army of the caliphate has used the Israeli model to intimidate Muslims in the region. In the Middle-East, you don’t need a world class army to succeed; you just need to be good enough to beat the guy next door decisively. The myth of ISIS invincibility must be shattered in the Muslim mind.

Competent French and British military forces could be helpful in defeating the regular army of the Islamic State if they choose to participate. However these nations lack the logistical capability to sustain a force in combat overseas for the three-to four months it would take to destroy the would-be caliphate’s army absent American support.

Finding a useful role for the Russians will be another political-diplomatic challenge for the Department of State. The Russian view of urban combat is to “destroy the city to save it”. This will not be helpful in crafting a long term political settlement. Getting the Russians engaged in trying to create a political-military solution to a post-Assad reconciliation government to govern the territory liberated from ISIS control would be a Nobel Prize winning effort for Secretary Kerry.

A recent Washington Post article identified Obama’s problem as that he is being ignored by the American public on this issue because he is seen as ineffectual in foreign policy. Perhaps the message the American people are sending him is; “just shoot him Dad.”