With Canada now entering into debate on whether to extend its 6 month campaign in the Middle East (it will of course) it seems to me to be a good time to state how I would proceed, if I was Commander in Chief.
First off – for all those who believed an air campaign was doomed to failure – let’s be clear - it has succeeded admirably; ISIS is now on the defensive.
But we in the Western World need to continue to avoid ‘boots on the ground’ other than for employing the special forces folks.
Occupation has not worked since Vietnam and will continue to fail.
So we need to continue to assist the local good guys with everything we can .. short of invading.
We also need a plan:
So starting with Iraq – we should continue to support the local good guys – the Kurds, the Jordanians, the Egyptians and so on. We should though discourage evil states, such as Iran, from getting involved.
With Syria – we need to leave well enough alone – it is too difficult to determine good from evil there – so let Assad (Shia) fight it out with ISIS and when one side is victorious – we then deal with the victor. That said, we need to do whatever we can to rescue the innocents there and get them to safety.
Lebanon – leave the bad guys there to the Israelis.
Egypt – the army is in control and can handle things quite well.
All the rest –save for Iran – should be the problem for the good Muslims to deal with – again – Jordan, Egypt and so on.
Iran – is a special case – first off it cannot be allowed to build the bomb – though the little guy in the White House seems hell bent on letting them do just that. It needs to be cut off and isolated and may well need intervention from Israel if the USA continues to bury its head in the sand.
Nigeria and other African nations in similar circumstances – must be helped by African Nations themselves with the help of NATO Special Forces led by the US.
This will work but if worse does come to worse – the ultimate solution is one that I have written about previously and that is to cut off the Middle East – save for the good guy countries – nothing comes in – nothing goes out and that pertains to Saudi Arabia and Turkey too should they continue to support terrorism.
In the meantime, Islamic Immigration, from these terrorist ridden nations - to the West – must be put on hold.
As I see it …
‘K.D. Galagher’
