by Robert M. Traxler
Over a year ago in this co
lumn I wrote we “must” send an Armored Brigade Taskforce (2,000 troops) to Iraq, and utilizing the air assets existing in theater to defeat ISIS/ISIL in its infancy, not allowing to grow into a major military/economic/political/religious force.
At the time their strength was estimated at less than 2,000. We did not, and the threat has grown at an alarming rate. From that time just over a year ago we have seen the threat grow into five nations, occupying the majority of land area in some.
One short year ago we could have kicked ISIS/ISIL back into a small area in Syria with little difficulty and inflicted huge losses on them in men and material. The swift defeat of these people would destroy the myth of the invincibility of the “Warriors of God.” We did almost nothing and they have grown into a formidable political/religious and military force.
In one short year they have metastasized into a full blown nation with a large trained army of over 40,000 regular soldiers and three times that number in irregular forces. The ISIS/ISIL nation has public servants and a governmental system; they trade with other nations and have diplomats in at least three countries. They pump oil and sell it to a number of nations, two of them being our allies. They have captured billions in major weapons systems, small arms and ammunition in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
The Islamic Caliphate, which President Obama now calls Daesh, a derogatory term, has a training program that has prepared thousands of terrorists and sent them worldwide to await the call of Allah to jihad. President Obama, referring to ISIS/ISIL as Daesh, will show them — as if calling them a name they do not like will bring them to tears and cause them to capitulate. Our President will show them how serious he is by using harsh language against them.
Nothing succeeds like success, and in the Islamic world ISIS/ISIL/Daesh is seen as winning and winning big. They are standing up to the infidels and fighting the good war for Islam. That is not the real threat; the real tragic long-term threat is the training and indoctrination of the thousands they have trained and sent back to nearly every nation in the world.
So what do the smart folks in our President’s administration plan to do? Increase our use of PSYOP (psychological operations) to improve how we fight radical Islam on the internet. The use of PS
YOP is a part of any military operation, but only a part; we will not defeat them in cyber space, we will defeat them on the battle field. Today we will need an Armored Corps; 50,000 troops, and our losses will be many times what they would have been if we had extinguished them when they were a small brush fire, not the raging forest fire they are today.
Picture in your mind: every day, a class of terrorists dressed in black, holding AK47s, standing at attention and receiving diplomas from the college of Islamic terrorism. President Obama called Afghanistan the good war because it destroyed terrorist training camps; Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and three African nations are currently harboring training camps larger than we ever found in Afghanistan before the Iraq war. Why is destroying them today a bad idea?
The reawakening of radical Islamic fundamentalism and the public support for terrorist operations, 81% in one poll, is multiplying each and every day; we do little or nothing. Every day we postpone the inevitable the enemy grows stronger and the job becomes more costly. History will view this as it has the threat of National Socialism in pre-WWII Germany. History will judge us harshly for doing little or nothing as the Islamic State grows at an alarming rate. As the danger grows the butcher’s bill of dead Americans will grow as well, both military and civilians.
Our next president will be left with a real mess to have to cleanup and will bury many more good folks than should have been necessary, thanks to President Obama doing almost nothing.
While terrorists attack Europe, President Obama tangos in Argentina.
