We know how to crush international terrorism—we simply choose to forget what actually works.
President Obama’s not-quite-a-war against the Islamic State is about to enter its third year. That hardly any Americans know what’s it’s even called (Operation Inherent Resolve, in case you wondered) speaks volumes about how diffidently this White House has treated the issue of defeating these jihadist madmen.
Despite the fact that ISIS represents a grave threat to the Middle East and beyond, with its forces occupying significant chunks of Iraq and Syria, Obama has consistently low-balled the danger these jihadists pose to the world. While the president no longer tries to dismiss the Islamic State as the “junior varsity” of jihadism, Obama has never given this threat the attention it merits. Indeed, the president and his bloated and micromanaging National Security Council have seemed more eager to talk about how the White House is beating ISIS than doing anything concrete to actually do that.
Now we have fresh assurances that “this time is different” as Obama has committed increased numbers of special operations forces to Operation Inherent Resolve. All this comes with nitpicking debates about whether our SOF are “in combat” and if they represent “boots on the ground” in Iraq and Syria. This is Obama’s silly season, since it’s transparently obvious that our military special operators, with help from CIA paramilitary personnel, are very close to combat, at minimum, when they support anti-ISIS forces whose boots are very much on the ground.
Read the rest at The Observer …
The XX Committee 