Of ISIS and the Wisdom of American Combat Boots on the Ground in Syria.

 Preamble

On September 05, 2014, President Barack Obama declared in no uncertain terms that “we are going to degrade and ultimately defeat the ISIL, the same way that we have gone after Al Qaeda.” And on September 18, 2014, the US Senate reaches a bi-partisan deal to allow President Barack Obama to fund and arm Syrian Moderate Rebel Forces in its quest to conquer and eliminate ISIS. That was about twenty months ago. Today, ISIS is still standing, unruffled; exporting mayhem and terrorism with relish around the world. In spite of President Putin’s massive air bombardments of its held territories; ISIS remains undaunted, wreaking more havoc and shedding more blood with devastating precision outside of it held enclaves, surpassing its records prior to September 05, 2014. That is a global challenge and a question mark on the approach or the lack of it adopted by President Barack Obama and the International Coalition Forces in arresting the situation in Syria. 

It is a truism in the international diplomatic circle that there are no permanent friends or allies, but permanent interests. Given that as true, there is no period, no history, and no situation more urgent than now for that principle to be on display in Damascus at the instance of Washington, with a view to enabling unhindered channels for integrated military and logistics support for the dismantling of ISIS and everything that it represents.

When President Obama made the declaration a few years ago that there won't be American combat boots on the ground in Syria, there was no ISIS, there was no beheading of American freelance journalists, or an American Aid Worker facing imminent death. There was no suicidal match for experimentation with the idea of an Islamic Caliphate in the Iraqi desert and there was no bloodbath in Paris and Brussels. 

There was no Jordanian prisoner of war, caged by ISIS, laced with gasoline, set ablaze and dragged along on a chariot of fire and filmed - filmed dying slowly in excruciating pain - decapitating piece by piece for the whole world to see. In other words, the lives of innocent citizens, the interests of America, and those of its allies were not at stake or threatened at that point in time. Today, it is a different story. ISIS is on the loose.

In every respect imaginable, a war against ISIS is a just war, Godly, and morally defensible. Therefore, we cannot, and we must not downplay the urgency or the efficacy of American combat boots on the ground in Syria.

When Muath al-Kaseasbeh, the Jordanian POW was set on fire inside of that cage, it was not only ISIS that was on trial for his gruesome death, but the entire human race, especially the leadership of the free world and of the Muslim world and everyone who was in a position to act, but failed to act to curb the excesses of a sect on a perverted mission. 

And as the Nigerian Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka rightly stated years ago, it is worth repeating here: “the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny.” That ISIS is tyrannical is an understatement. What is more tyrannical is the timidity of heads of state and government of the western world in the face of the clear and present danger posed by ISIS.

Without mincing words, I want to maintain that arming the Free Syrian Army, without the direct involvement of the coalition forces in real combat, will not vanquish ISIS from the occupied territories. In addition, the underlying grievances, mostly political, and allegations of human rights violations must be addressed simultaneously with the quest to annihilate ISIS; otherwise, Syria will remain a vast land of unequal rights and justice, and a testing ground for every form of Islamic fundamentalism.

Given the futility of the recent Russian air assault and bombardments - massive and debilitating as they were - and the not-so-surprising disappearing act of the Moderate Rebel Forces and the Free Syrian Army in defeating ISIS or vanquishing Assad, the need for direct involvement of the American Forces and the International Coalition forces on the ground in Syria cannot be overemphasized. 

The world cannot afford to grieve over another Brussels. At the moment, the situation in Syria is no longer about President Assad and his alleged human rights shortcomings; it is about checkmating ISIS and stemming the tide of global terrorism.

Benchmarking ISIS, its Invincibility, and Ego

The much-orchestrated financial muscles of the Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are not insurmountable. Militarily, it is not invincible, either. It has no standing army with the capacity to withstand sustained and concerted air and ground bombardments from the US Armed Forces and forces of the international coalition. In spite of the alleged vastness of its occupied territories and the enormity of its volunteered fighters, the truth is, a greater majority of the volunteered fighters are not your regular trained or seasoned army. Besides, ISIS cannot acquire more than what it has at the present in terms of finances and combat weapons. So, a massively enforced military blockade from Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and Jordan would make it practically impossible for ISIS to execute reinforcements in terms of weapons and volunteer fighters.

The world defeated Hitler and decimated Nazism. President Barack Obama brought down Osama bin Laden, vanquished al Awlaki and his networks of rebels, and rescued the Horn of Africa from the stranglehold of rampaging pirates.

The more world leaders and heads of governments vacillate on how to annihilate ISIS and checkmate religious-related extremism around us the more vicious they become in their barbaric exploits. And the more glamorous and inciting picture of ISIS they paint in the heart and soul of gullible adherents of their brand of faith.

As the world watches, ISIS wasted no time perfecting the craft of invincibility, projecting unhindered a Caliphate in the image and form of an El Dorado. Sadly, the global community has not been able to deflate that grandeur and has never given a thought to demystifying the bogus, but very successful marketing scheme and the subliminal messages most often embedded in all the video clips ISIS has been uploading on the World Wide Web.

So, the first approach to undoing those subliminal messages and claims of invincibility requires checkmating the over-hyped grandeur surrounding the ISIS brand. Because it is that audacity, the dramatized invincibility, and the daring attitude inherent in all the attacks, whether in Paris, Syria, Nairobi, Baghdad, Chibok, or Brussels that creates the allure in the minds of natural haters of everything west, which in turn, facilitates recruitment drive.

Therefore, the US Armed Forces and the International Coalition Forces must turn the table on ISIS by any means necessary and put a lie to that magnified strength, and of a Caliphate flowing ceaselessly with milk and honey.

And until ISIS and the extremists become the victims - the conquered and the endangered species - thus, creating a chilling effect on the soul of potential recruits, ISIS will continue to enjoy a steady membership boom and mushrooming global networks. That surge must be checkmated for obvious reasons. It is doom-laden. With it, the world will continue to experience escalations in bombing and destruction of lives. Because, with a membership surge, comes a willing suicide bomber.

The ISIS brand, to the Islamic fundamentalist and innate jihadist, is like a Chemistry Lab in High School where science enthusiasts readily gravitate to experiment with known and imaginary noble concepts for intellectual enrichment. That is the fame that ISIS enjoys the most about its Caliphate in the making. It has created a platform, an El Dorado kind of for harboring enemies of civilizations, Therein they find comfort, in experimenting, unlike High School Chemistry buds, with dangerous concepts and perfection of IED. Therefore, the earlier that El Dorado, imaginary or real, is stymied, the better it is for the human race. 

There is no other way to debunk that bogus claim of invincibility, than massive and consistent attacks and reinforcement, overwhelming the enemies from all fronts possible – Colin Powell’s principle.

The inability of ISIS to defeat the Syrian Armed Forces and compel Assad to relinquish his throne or kingship, tells on the weakness of ISIS in terms of a military command structure, skills, and organization.

That it captured some Iraqi territories in the past is understandable. It is not a show of military strength as most Security Experts and pundits have alluded to on numerous US television stations. Then, Iraqi Armed Forces were in a formative stage, compounded by a weak President who did not enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of his people or the law enforcement agencies.

Beheading unarmed journalists, killing innocent civilians, and executing captured enemy combatants in a most gruesome manner for propaganda do not meet the definition of military strength or invincibility. Simply put, they don’t have it. Assad is still standing, in spite of the much-orchestrated invincibility of ISIS.

Indeed, ISIS has succeeded in appropriating a sizable volume of captured weapons belonging to Syrian and Iraqi forces as well as a vast oil field. The truth is they cannot acquire more than what they have at the moment. It is not enough to acquire an oil field in the absence of a ready market for the final products. Blockading existing markets or trading routes, Turkey, for instance, is a good start. In addition, they don't have the technological or military wherewithal to keep the seized weapons for sustainable deployment.  

Lastly, we must de-emphasize the spontaneous raids and arrests associated with every suicide attack, because they are half-measures. Historically, they have not been known to compel any sense of deterrent on a mind already made up, bent on inflicting serious damage on perceived enemies.  In other words, raids and arrests, standing alone, cannot eliminate the scourge of terrorism. Because raids and arrests are perceived by the perpetrators of the act as the natural consequences of their actions – the suicide bombing. Fruitful or not, they are wasted efforts, because the damage has been done - many innocent lives have already been wasted, and in most cases, public properties and infrastructural facilities worth millions of dollars ruined.

So, losing their lives, whether in the process of suicide attacks or afterward, makes no difference. To the adherents of the faith, it makes the bombing more appealing and the death that follows more fulfilling. It is about martyrdom and the infliction of maximum casualties on perceived enemies. I know that this is a new theory, and I don't want to be misunderstood here. There is nothing wrong with making arresting or raiding the homes of terrorists, but it must not always be after the act. The world must always be on the alert and ahead of the curve with a preemptive strike and attack on the enemies of peace. 

The Futility of Assad’s Exit: An Analysis

In light of the inability of the government in Libya and Iraq to exercise reasonable control over the civil society as well as ensuring territorial sovereignty, calls into question the feasibility of democratic dispensation indiscriminately pursued all over the Middle East by the West.

Indeed the impulse to overthrow President Assad for all his past records of human rights abuse is high and compelling, but we should be mindful of the fact that a greater majority of his adversaries are unrepentant Islamic militants who, given the chance, will never and can never be salvaged, or expected to embrace the Western secular culture and democratic values.

President Assad, to a certain degree, is seemingly vindicated in much of his arguments over the years about the civil war in his country, to wit, the majority of the insurgents fighting to oust him from power are not the sort of “freedom fighters” America and the West would be willing to align with. The truth is they are remnants of radical elements and Islamic fundamentalists from all over the world, with one goal in common: kill Assad and turn Syria and part of the Iraq desert into an Islamic Caliphate. And these are the Islamic militants who, under the camouflage of a protest in Benghazi on September 12, 2012, invaded the US Consulate, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other US diplomats. Therefore, it is a hard choice for America and the West to make: work with Syria to dismantle ISIS, or stay aside and watch ISIS turn the Iraqi desert into a haven for the export of global terrorism.

More troubling is the question of managing the liberation process. Who will exercise jurisdiction over the ISIS-occupied territory, if eventually ISIS is defeated and evacuated? That is, assuming President Assad is still an enemy, hunted.

Will the coalition forces and the moderate rebels, after the expected defeat of ISIS, turn their weapons on Assad and his forces, with a view to forcing Assad out of power in Syria? That scenario is unlikely to play out now that Assad and his forces are getting the upper hand, overwhelming and degrading ISIS.

Or will Syria degenerate into two mini-sovereign nations - one under the control and leadership of Assad, and the other under the control of the international coalition and the moderate Free Syrian Army? Again, that scenario is unlikely to evolve in light of the fact that Assad and his forces are gradually recovering much of the lost territories from ISIS.

Given the facts on the ground, it is not enough to defeat and vanquish ISIS, without first or simultaneously addressing the civil war in Syria that gave life to ISIS in the first case. Attention, therefore, should be extended to how to manage the intended defeat of ISIS.

From all indications, the so-called moderate forces are not formidable, militarily. They couldn't withstand the military strength of Assad Forces and they have been similarly humbled by the more aggressive and brutal ISIS forces.

In other words, these are not the forces or a formidable group that, under the prevailing circumstances, you would expect to form a viable government in Syria after the defeat of ISIS or the unlikely capitulation of Assad. 

Therefore, the international coalition must strive to integrate the political solution with the military approach, without forcing President Assad out of power. The political turmoil and ethnic intolerance in Iraq in the past three years are crucial enough for a road map.

The Ethnic Card and Stories from other Land

Syria is not Egypt. Egyptians rebelled against the Mubarak Administration collectively as a people. There was no tribal War Lord taking advantage of the pro-democracy protest to inflict maximum damage on President Mubarak and members of his administration. And there was no visible tribal or ethnic group fighting on the side of President Mubarak to frustrate the agenda of the pro-democracy movement.

With regards to the Muslim Brotherhood, it was a different story – they were neutral all through the nights and days that the protest lasted in Cairo, waiting patiently to occupy the vacuum expected to be created in the lead following the demise of the Mubarak Administration.

As expected, being the most viable and well-organized group existing then, the Muslim Brotherhood was able to mobilize its followers within a record time, cashing in on the anti-Mubarak sentiments to win the Presidential election that was called by the interim Military Government. 

But the newly elected President, Mohamed Morsi, got it all wrong. He did not let go of the Islamists in him, and he was vanquished by the people. And a new government came into being within a record time. That did not happen in Libya or Iraq. And it will not happen in Syria.

With respect to the Algerians, they simply had enough of corrupt political leaders – leadership of the Nigerian style that hadn’t any clue on how to manage its vast oil wealth or respond to the concerns of the vast and ever-restless proletarians.

In sum, the anger, the joblessness, or the feeling of anti-establishment in Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt that led to the evolution of the “Arab Spring” was not motivated by tribal or ethnic, or religious factors as we saw in Syria and Libya.

Therefore, President Obama and the international coalition must tread softly in arming the so-called moderate rebels inside of Syria. Because when it is all over, you would still have a substantial member, if not a majority, of the Syrian people backing President Assad as one of their own.

To put it succinctly, a minority regime in Syria is not sustainable. President Obama or his successor cannot afford to 'babysit' another adolescent government - Islamic or secular - in another hostile territory.

  

It is now left to President Obama, his security team, and his Western allies to separate the wheat from the chaff, with a view to avoiding creating other mujahidin.

Undermining the political angle of the civil war in Syria is not a smart move. The ISIS phenomenon, though overwhelming, is a collateral issue in the Syria saga. Ending it does not automatically eliminate the underlying grievances that compelled the civil war in Syria.  

In addition, Syria is not Gadhafi’s Libya where the pro-government forces collapsed under intense pressure from the international community.

President Assad has real and highly motivated followers who are willing to sacrifice their lives for their President. The facts on the ground speak volumes about that. If President Assad is vulnerable he would have been ousted by now, given the multidimensional attacks his forces and administration have received from ISIS, the Free Syrian Army, and the international community in the past three years.

In other words, the liberation of ISIS-held territories will not completely eliminate the political crisis in Syria. In the same way, the defeat of Assad forces, if ever it happens, will not enshrine the elusive peace in the polity. The situation requires concerted and well-coordinated military and political solutions – an inclusive government, with democratic values and respect for the rule of law and protection of human rights of the citizenry, without regard to race or religion.

  

A Global Challenge.  

A few years ago, a British soldier, Lee Rigby, was viciously stabbed to death, almost beheaded in broad daylight by two members of this group in Woolwich, South East London. To be so brutish and unrepentantly heartless to the extent of taking your hatred, your intolerance your disillusionment, and your resentment of governmental institutions straight into the streets of London, and in broad daylight, stabbing a uniformed officer to death, explains the extreme nature of the indoctrination and brainwashing they imbibed inside places of worship in Great Britain of all places. It further explains the level of detachment between them (all the underwear and shoe bombers) and the civil society on the one hand, and the hatred they harbor against government and law enforcement agencies on the other. That is a Global Challenge.

The comatose state of the political system the world is witnessing in Iraq, Libya, and Syria today is the offshoot of that extremism, of a polluted mindset and belief system incubated and nurtured to full bloom inside of Great Britain and France, with followers now spanning the length and breadth of the globe. That is a Global Challenge.

This piece is not just on how to decimate ISIS and its affiliates in line with what the world did to Hitler and Nazism, but to rein in on the instructors and teachers of hatred and Armageddon as the world has come to know them all over Great Britain, Europe, and part of the Middle East and Nigeria. And to fish out preemptively and permanently all those they have already indoctrinated in the philosophy of jihadism. Because terrorism is a global challenge.

To invade a boarding school at night time, tied up the hands and legs of innocent school children behind their backs, affixed them to a stake like animals, and cut off their throats, leaving them to bleed to death as Boko Haram did at a boarding school in Benue State, Nigeria a few years ago is not an achievement that any Muslim worldwide would want to be proud of or be a part of. That is a Global Challenge. As we write, "the Chibok School Girls" are still under captivity somewhere in North Eastern Nigeria, held without their consent and for a cause or causes unfathomable to discerning minds. 

It is mind-bugling and disturbingly stupefying how a sect within defined and ascertainable geographical boundaries, without a standing army, and even if it does, that is not up to half a percent of what Hitler had in terms of weaponry and manpower, is still standing, unruffled, wreaking havoc upon havoc around the world undaunted. That is a global challenge.

A few days after that horrific death of the Jordanian POW, and as the culture is after such death and attacks, Jordanian Fighter Jets were seen over the ISIS sky, dropping bombs at specific targets on the ground. And that was it. Today, ISIS is still standing. And it has wreaked vast destruction and unleashed more gruesome and more painful death on mankind unabated. And that is an indictment on the part of the global community, with the means to act.

The World fought a brutal Second World War for the sake of humanity. If the rest of the world, specifically, if the United States of America, had intervened in the War earlier than it did, more lives would have been saved and Holocaust would have been averted to some degree. 

Slavery, the worst form of man’s inhumanity to man lasted for as long as the Union tolerated or delayed the declaration of war on the later-formed, Confederate Southern states that were unwilling to jettison slavery culture and relinquish their hold on freed Blacks. Eventually, the Emancipation Proclamation came, and the “world” of Blacks was made better.

And between 1992 and 1995, the whole world vacillated while the people of the former Yugoslavia endured a brutal and televised campaign of ethnic cleansing perpetrated on each other by tribes and clans that once paid allegiance to the same flag. In the end, thousands of lives were lost and a once beautiful multi-ethnic nation-state tumbled down into obscurity in the name of religion and ethnic superiority. 

The world and the international coalition forces must unite, show strength, and vanquish ISIS. We cannot afford to dilly-dally over another Rwanda, Slavery, or the Holocaust. 

  

Finally, like the Nigerian Boko Haram, ISIS has no attributes of statehood that would require reconstruction after its annihilation. It is not Iraq, and it is certainly not Afghanistan. Therefore, the attack must be massive and all-encompassing, with extinction as the main goal. As long as the objective is to decimate the group - riding the occupied territories of every remnant of Islamic fundamentalism, the exit strategy is expected to be less arduous to execute. Here, you do not have another new nation-state like Iraq and Afghanistan to incubate and nurture to adulthood at public expense. Now is the time for the West to show strength and take it from where President Putin left it, waging an all-out land and air bombardments of ISIS and its occupied territories. It is taking the battle to the bedrooms of the enemies, by any means necessary; harassing, destabilizing their composure, and keeping them hunted down by President Obama's principle. Sadly, President Obama is yet to deliver his anti-terrorism war manifesto in the war with ISIS. An insurgent running for cover will not have the time to gyrate with armor vehicles or the time and space to record propaganda video messages. With the exception of Russia, the world has become too timid, deep down too timid of what to make of ISIS, or defining the exit strategy from the Syrian saga. The time is now for those elusive combat boots to be on the ground in Syria, with a view to matching ISIS, its affiliates and business partners “towards the gate of hell where they rightly belong” as Vice President Joe Biden once declared a few years ago.