Defeating ISIS

When we look at things we have to look at both sides. Right now when we look at the Syrian situation and the refugees, we are only looking at one side of the equation. The other side is the fact we are being given a huge force which if channeled correctly could be used to fight ISIS and even defeat them. There are several pieces to this puzzle and all of them need to be examined. First of all we have to admit the amount of land occupied by ISIS is not directly linked to the problem of terrorist attacks in the west. If a group of people, no matter how small is willing to die to achieve their goal, they are very hard to stop. If we were to be able to wipe out all but 100 ISIS supporters that 100 could still launch terrorist attacks and this is the basic problem. When one fights a country and that country is beaten, usually all attack activity stops. Fighting a group of terrorists is a different chore completely. If we look at some of the terrorists we had here who were fighting on their own such as the Beltway sniper who was able to shoot and kill ten people and wound three more in Washington D.C. over the course of three weeks in 2002 you will see what I am talking about. The sniper and only one other person caused this carnage and they were not connected to any organization and did this on their own and I don’t think they had a death wish.

We know terrorists must communicate and while the government has been telling us we can’t break the sophisticated codes they are using and quote all these exotic software packages, but  they could be using something as simple as a book code using an obscure book and citing pages, lines and word positions. This really doesn’t matter because even if the code is broken we will still not know it because it would jeopardize any government operations since the best way to handle this is to not let your enemy know you have broken their code. The truth is one of the best ways to find out what is going on and who is doing what, is to follow the money trail. Trump said destroy their oil sales. Yes they have been taking over oil properties in the areas they conquer and Trump was partially correct, but not completely. Unfortunately they have enough rich supporters to keep them going. These people are the ones we should be going after, but we have to face the fact many of them will be in countries like Saudi Arabia who is supposedly our ally.

I am not saying Saudi Arabia is our enemy or even Egypt, what I am saying is there are certain people in these countries who are probably backing ISIS if history is any guide. Many people say we started and equipped ISIS to destabilize Syria and that it backfired on us. I wouldn’t doubt it, but I can’t prove it. Even if we did we should stop the finger pointing now, because there are bigger problems at hand and they are growing. For some reason there are those who think beheading people, torturing them and raping women is God’s work. It is hard to believe this is true, but it is. These people have twisted the Muslim religion to such an extent their followers think you can do anything you want to a non- Muslim and it is okay. They have also been taught and believe if they do this they will go to heaven and be greeted by 51 virgins. This would be laughable if it wasn’t so serious. To illustrate a point I saw a photo of an ISIS fighter going into battle with a cinder block hanging in front of him to protect his private parts so when he died he could take advantage of those virgins.

One of the problems we have is we are fighting a 12th century people in the 21st century and because of their zeal our tactics are not working so we have to figure out some other method. If we think all Muslims are bad we are playing right into the hands of the terrorists because they want to swell their ranks with the rest of the law abiding Muslims. They are hoping Europe and North America refuses to take in the refugees. If this happens they will preach peace to them and tell them if they join ISIS they will not be harmed and ISIS will look out for them if the men fight for the cause. I am saying we can use this to our advantage and take in our share of the refugees if they sign a contract that the men of fighting age will join a force to fight ISIS and in turn we will protect their families. The pay they earn for doing this will be used to support their families. If they defeat ISIS then we will give them the choice of applying for citizenship or returning home to a peaceful country. There is a fly in the ointment however and this is Bashar al-Assad. He must go, because many of the refugees are his enemies. The Russians already admitted he has to be replaced.

When one looks at the size of ISIS, which is growing, it is still nowhere the size of the refugee swarm moving out of Syria. We have to take advantage of this and use it instead of thinking of it as a burden on us. If Syria became a decent place to live I would think many of the refugees might want to return to their roots. We have to take advantage of every chance we have and stop looking at everything in a negative light. We may never be able to completely destroy ISIS, but we should be able to destroy its armed forces. That part of the fight is more or less conventional. We have to find out who is supplying them with the arms they are getting now, including ammunition and destroy them. If it turns out to be any governments of Arab countries we call our friends, we have to warn them to stop or else we will take action against them. The same is true for spare parts and such. Any company which knowingly supplies anything to ISIS will never be allowed to do business again in the U.S. and if it is a U.S. company its chairman and board of directors will be subject to trial for treason.

We are not as helpless as it would seem we are, we just don’t want to go that extra mile. I personally would not consider any nation in the Middle East an ally if they don’t want to mount a meaningful force against ISIS in the field. Why should the U.S. always have to fight other country’s wars? I am glad the Russians decided to bomb ISIS, but not happy they are also attacking anti-Assad forces. One thing which might come out of this is the civilized countries of the world will be drawn closer together, because the peril affects all of them. ISIS can be beat. We have to get people into that organization, create a credible force with a refugee army, get the Arab countries to send a military force into the field against ISIS, cut off the money going to ISIS, stop companies from doing business with them and a few other things. If we do these things the days of ISIS are numbered.