I do not expect for tPOTUS to listen to such advice

[dan_bgblue]

But IMO it is spot on and is totally in line with former commanders on the ground in the sand pit and former military experts that have been ignored for way too long. If the allied 40 nations do not get the indigenous folks on the ground with skin in the game involved in the process, any efforts on the coalition will continue to get headlines but will not affect the eventual disastrous outcome

Linkage

[Doc]

I'm not in favor of point three. While the anti-ISIS forces might be our friends today, tomorrow they may not. We need to learn from past mistakes. We need not give military equipment to groups who may become our enemies in the future especially in the middle east where that is not just possible but likely.

[KeithKSR]

I'm not in favor of point three. While the anti-ISIS forces might be our friends today, tomorrow they may not. We need to learn from past mistakes. We need not give military equipment to groups who may become our enemies in the future especially in the middle east where that is not just possible but likely.

Arming the enemies of our enemies hasn't always turned out well. We saw how the Taliban returned the support we gave them in their war with Russia.

[Doc]

Arming the enemies of our enemies hasn't always turned out well. We saw how the Taliban returned the support we gave them in their war with Russia.

Exactly. And ISIS is well armed in part because we armed an army who threw down their weapons at the first sign of a fight, to be gathered up by our newest foe. IMO we pay to develop the technology, we learn how to use the technology, let's not give it away.

[UKStucat]

I don't know ISIS is one of the most brutal organizations in the Middle East. While I agree that we made mistakes giving aid to militant Jihadists in the Soviet war with Afghanistan back in 1979-80 it would be a disaster for the whole Middle East if a group like ISIS took over Iraq.

[Doc]

I don't know ISIS is one of the most brutal organizations in the Middle East. While I agree that we made mistakes giving aid to militant Jihadists in the Soviet war with Afghanistan back in 1979-80 it would be a disaster for the whole Middle East if a group like ISIS took over Iraq.

I don't think anybody is suggesting that ISIS be allowed to take over. Exactly the opposite. I'm not in favor of arming a bunch of people who next month might be against us. The ONLY people I'd arm in the middle east would be the Isreali's as they are the ONLY ones I trust as true allies, although I'm not sure they feel as comfortable about our support now as they once did. I'm done with selling or giving our technology to middle eastern thugs and dictators simply because they are against the next in a long line of American haters because next month it might be that group that is out to kill us. Our troops are trained on our weapons and our troops know how to use them. Let them do what they are trained to do. Enough with the "peace keeping" mission. Send them into a situation where it isn't peace keeping. Send them into a destroy your enemy mission. How long did it take the USA to kick Saddam out of Kuwait? Days? What extended it was the "peace keeping". #### the peace keeping. If we are tired of war, fine. Kill your enemy and get out. Compared to the US military, ISIS is a JV team however unless you unleash the first team to do its job you won't get a victory. Instead we pussy foot around hoping we don't piss anybody off then peace keep. Let the U.N. peace keep. Take OUR military with OUR troops and defeat them with OUR strategy and get it over with. Blow those 3rd world ##### back into the stone age where they belong. Then let them go back to killing each other while they herd sheep on a mountainside.

[suncat05]

ISIS is but one facet of a multi-headed Hydra. But the brain of the Hydra resides in Tehran, and always has. Yes, there are other heads that need killing, like in Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya, but the braintrust of all this nonsense is in Tehran, Iran. Kill that one first, and eventually the rest will expose themselves to be killed as well.

I have said all along that we were fighting in the wrong places in the wrong way. You kill the brain first, and then the rest of it will show itself to be killed as well. We have not been pursuing these scumbags aggressively enough, even when this started back in the 70's. Lt. Col. Oliver North called this one way back then, and in front of Congress. But few listened. Bin Laden is dead, and that's a good thing. But the main problem begins and ends in Iran.

[suncat05]

And if (or should I say when?) Iran gets "the bomb" the situation will be more deadly than ever. Tehran has been fomenting this Islamic caliphate stuff for years. They go nuclear and the problem multiplies beyond human grief.

Iran is the root of the problem. Always has been, and especially since the Shah was deposed. Carter was weak, just like this current POTUS is(although I think his weakness is really a front for his Muslim sympathies), and Reagan should have turned Iran into a giant glass facade after our hostages were released. I loved Reagan, but this is one of the things he got wrong. Way wrong.
We cannot deal with these monsters from a position of weakness like we have been the last 6 1/2 years. They'll try to do something totally out-of-bounds and then the whole world may end up on fire. If we burn, so must they. It's that simple.