“Degrade and Ultimately Destroy ISIL”? ISIL is winning and the US President lost any credibility WASHINGTON – “Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism...
How Big A Threat From Jihadist Organizations? Too much hype coming from the media. There is danger; but it is not that big WASHINGTON – The tricky part of any asymmetric warfare threat –now I am referring to the anti-Western Jihadist organizations...
Media Hype About ISIL Not Helpful The Islamic State is a serious security problem; but it is not an existential threat WASHINGTON – The international media are not helping our understanding of the actual extent of the Islamic State threat....
Very Modest Military Effort Against ISIL The US is doing little and the other members of the coalition almost nothing. This is not serious WASHINGTON – With a straight face, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest announced that while the United Arab Emirates stopped flying...
Sudden Vacancy At The Pentagon Highlights Policy Confusion America needs to find agreement on national security priorities. But this is difficult, given the poisoned political climate WASHINGTON – Former Senator Chuck Hagel, a fairly liberal Republican from Nebraska is no longer US Secretary of Defense. Several media...
Bombing ISIL, One Vehicle At A Time – How Many Years To Achieve US Goals? Each air strike gets a small target. At this rate it will takes years to "degrade and destroy" this terrorist army WASHINGTON – How is the air war against ISIL waged by the US and a coalition of European and...
The Roots Of Islamic Fundamentalism Are In The Crisis Of the Arab World We can and should fight against ISIL in Syria and Iraq. But we cannot defeat radicalism through bombing campaigns WASHINGTON – Denmark, a NATO country, just joined the fight against ISIL, (also ISIS or IS) in Iraq. We are...
The Long War Against The Islamic State Compared to the Kosovo air campaign of 1999, the current US-led military effort is very modest. At this rate, it will take years to "degrade and destroy" ISIL WASHINGTON – President Obama, now acting in conjunction with a newly formed Arab coalition, (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, UAE,...
Does Obama Mean Business Against ISIL? There is a huge gap between stated goals and military means WASHINGTON – A few days ago, after President Obama via a prime time TV address had announced America’s goal...
Tepid Support For The War Against ISIL – Conflict Will Drag On Arab states should be leading, but they will not. US and Europe have no money, limited will WASHINGTON – The Obama inspired anti-ISIL (also known as ISIS and IS, for Islamic State) coalition is growing –on paper. In...