real people with real families are dying because of something that is made up. nore more real than santa claus, the easter bunny, the tooth fairy. that's the only thing i can think of when i see stuff like this happen.
They've lost half the territory that they once had and the rate of individuals joining ISIS has dropped pretty significantly. That could be part of the reason that attacks are increasing but, like others have mentioned, even if you take all the territory that they hold the ideology can never be eradicated and that is a huge problem.
Yeah but if you can get rid of the territory they hold then you can greatly cripple their ability to recruit people to their cause. If they don't hold any land, they have no credibility. Part of what made them so strong so quickly is the vast amount of land they controlled in Syria and Iraq. Take that away and they are nothing really. They've been around since 1999....when is the first time you heard of them?
Take control of the entire Middle East? The Iraqis don't want us there anymore and Syria is a mess. They are recruiting folks in developed countries which has nothing to do with territory.
The Iraqi's opinion is irrelevant, paying attention to what they wanted is what led to the rise of ISIS. If we had strong leaders instead of Bush and Obama, we'd have set up a permanent base in Iraq to provide stability for the region and that's all it would have taken really. You could launch attacks from there into Syria if needed to support secular Syrian rebels to make it between them and Assad, taking ISIS out of the picture. Instead we had weak leadership between both presidents that led to the rise of ISIS and the destabilization of the entire region.
Once you eliminate ISIS the terror attacks would drop because you would end their publication network which is what is influencing people. It's like if you took away all the right wing blogs then many of the posters here wouldn't come around anymore because they wouldn't have their talking points. That's why it is critical to destroy not just ISIS, but it's recruitment and publication apparatus.
But only if you knew of the Caliphate.. Untouched virgins will fall from the sky and the best tasting kool aid (with all natural organic ingredients) will flow out of the numerous fountains....You will be a true believer.
Only due to weak leadership. There's a way things could have been done right and it would have led to positive results. Of course, we should probably assume that the country is too weak to do anything positive so if we make that assumption, I'd be right with you. If that's the case, we should just accept terrorism as something that'll happen every month or two.
Tactically, what's the difference between a base in Saudi and a base in Iraq? We have the ability to air strike and ground attack as is. We have a permanent base in the Middle East along with Navy in the Persian Gulf and Mediterranean.
Well a base in Iraq would have provided security for a rebuilding Iraq so that they could focus on economic recovery and long term viability rather than having to struggle just to keep from falling apart. A success story in Iraq would also go a long way towards the stability of the region. Instead, right after we abandoned Iraq, ISIS was able to flood into the country and piss away all of the progress the US made which was a great recruiting point for them. They also picked up weapons and tanks that we gave to the local Iraqi forces when they dropped their weapons and ran at the sight of ISIS forces.
My point is, why would an Iraq base be any different than a Saudi base? I totally agree that they need security in order to stabilize and build their economy, and therefore provide a means to the impoverished that see no other choice but to fight for ISIS. But economic stability will only do so much, there is so much history of oppression of Shiites that there was a major backlash once Saddam's regime fell. Our initial military invasion of Iraq was remarkably successful. Securing another nation with an entirely different culture, yet remarkably similar beliefs in terms of perceived or real foreign oppression, was going to be next to impossible without the assistance of other Arab regimes who "speak the language."
This is all 100% accurate though. I hated that Obama politicized the war and announced a date for troop withdrawal. I hate when the media pressures the admin for this type of information. The media has a role to play, but wars need to be fought to win. War is ugly. It shouldn't be televised, but I understand the need for transparency to ensure less atrocities are committed -- which will always happen in war.
Uh huh... We need someone with strong leadership to drop two million tons of ordinances instead of 1 million tons.... More violence should solve this issue eh?
Bush made an agreement for a withdrawal. War is always politicized in modern times, especially wildly unpopular wars.
Well the difference being that a permanent base in Saudi doesn't help those in Iraq and wouldn't have stopped ISIS from spreading to Iraq.
It's not about dropping ordinance, if Bush and Obama had been strong leaders, the US would have a permanent base in Iraq which would provide security for the nation as they rebuild rather than abandoning them and strengthening ISIS. Shouldn't be hard to understand.
