A plan to defeat ISIS

[MaGZ]

A plan to defeat ISIS

There is a way to defeat ISIS without using ground forces. First bomb Raqqa knocking out their electrical grid. After a few weeks, begin 463L master pallet airdrops containing food supplies, weapons and ammunition. A civil war will follow. Promise the Sunni rebels that a new Sunnistan will be created out of western Iraq and northeast Syria. ISIS will be defeated and a new era of peace in the Middle East will be established.

 

[Sunstealer]

 

[Jrrarglblarg]

A plan to defeat ISIS

There is a way to defeat ISIS without using ground forces. First bomb Raqqa knocking out their electrical grid. After a few weeks, begin 463L master pallet airdrops containing food supplies, weapons and ammunition. A civil war will follow. Promise the Sunni rebels that a new Sunnistan will be created out of western Iraq and northeast Syria. ISIS will be defeated and a new era of peace in the Middle East will be established.

Every bit as sensible as de-Ba'athification in Iraq by sending the entire military home with weapons and no paycheck.

Just as workable a plan as sending a few hundred "trainers" into a war zone to end a three-cornered civil war.

As morally sound as sending a general to march troops back and forth across the border with Mexico to try tricking them into starting the expansionist war you want to fight.

As intellectually rigorous as flying planes into skyscrapers to utterly demoralize a nation.

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[MaGZ]

My proposal is the best so far. An invasion by American and Arab forces is a nonstarter. No Sunni countries are willing to commit any troops themselves and a US going it alone is not in the cards. ISIS has to be defeated from within by Sunni insurgents.

 

[Toontown]

I have a better idea. Offer Vietnam a $200 billion to provide 50,000 troops to clean ISIS out of Iraq and Syria, with the aid of NATO air and logistical support.

It would be quick, easy money for the Vietnamese.

 

[Loss Leader]

I'm amazed not to disagree entirely with some of the foundational thoughts expressed in the OP. I believe in an independent Kurdistan and redrawing the Iraq/Iram/Syrian borders to accommodate their ethnic populations.

The problems, however, are vast. First, even though one area may be predominantly one religion or ethnicity, there is still a great deal of mixing - in some places house by house. This means that any sort of plan will necessarily create refugees. Syria's government is illegitimate and has to be removed without creating a power vacuum. I have no idea how to do this. The new nations all need access to wealth, which means some sort of profit-sharing on oil - a very hard deal to broker. The prospect of an independent nation needs to satisfy radicals sufficiently that they stop blowing up planes and stadiums and things. I don't know how we could do that.

I don't see merely allowing a rolling religious war across the Middle East could be a solution to any of this.

 

[The Don]

I'm amazed not to disagree entirely with some of the foundational thoughts expressed in the OP. I believe in an independent Kurdistan and redrawing the Iraq/Iram/Syrian borders to accommodate their ethnic populations.

One of the things I've been very impressed about in this Iraq/Syria mess is the way that the Kurds, as murderous a bunch of terrorists as you'd be unfortunate to meet, have managed to position themselves as the "good guys" whose territorial ambitions should be supported.

Never mind the other people who are already living in those areas or the de-stabilising effect of having an oil-funded state with a history of antipathy towards most of the key players in the region.

To be fair, it would be absolutely typical of the Western powers to throw our support behind a group who seem to support our objectives in a disputed region only to have buyers' remorse a decade or so later when "our boys" turn out to be a bigger problem that the other lot.

 

[McHrozni]

One of the things I've been very impressed about in this Iraq/Syria mess is the way that the Kurds, as murderous a bunch of terrorists as you'd be unfortunate to meet, have managed to position themselves as the "good guys" whose territorial ambitions should be supported.

Par for the course for the region, just look at all the support Palestine gets all over the world.

McHrozni

 

[Loss Leader]

One of the things I've been very impressed about in this Iraq/Syria mess is the way that the Kurds, as murderous a bunch of terrorists as you'd be unfortunate to meet, have managed to position themselves as the "good guys" whose territorial ambitions should be supported.

For all it's worth, the Kurds have been kicked around for the better part of forever. They're a despised minority in Turkey (which made even learning the Kurdish language a crime), though Turkey won't even entertain the idea of letting them secede. They're a minority in Iraq and were, at best, ignored completely under Hussein. But they'd be an almost purely ethnic nation if we redrew a couple borders that only exist because the British drew lines at random.

If Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Kazaks got their own countries, it seems like the Kurds should, too.

 

[The Don]

For all it's worth, the Kurds have been kicked around for the better part of forever. They're a despised minority in Turkey (which made even learning the Kurdish language a crime), though Turkey won't even entertain the idea of letting them secede. They're a minority in Iraq and were, at best, ignored completely under Hussein.

Well that's certainly a nice summary of the Kurdish narrative and shows how effectively they've managed the process.

But they'd be an almost purely ethnic nation if we redrew a couple borders that only exist because the British drew lines at random.

You make it sound so easy, never mind the hundreds of thousands displaced in the process (or made into despised minorities themselves). Whilst the Kurds may be the least bad bunch in a bag of vipers, the thousands killed by Kurdish freedom fighters (or terrorists depending on which side your bread is buttered) tell a particular story.

If Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Kazaks got their own countries, it seems like the Kurds should, too.

It may seem like that to you, but that's easy to say if it' not your country being broken up in the process. The Kurds may be able to establish a stable state under the rule of law and may genuinely be a force for good in the region - then again we may have chosen to back "this lot" because they're not as bad as "the other lot" and live to rue the day.

 

[Loss Leader]

I think in my first post, I acknowledged that it would be anything but easy. It still seems like a worthwhile long-term goal.

 

[Craig B]

I suspect MaGZ is being jocularly provocative, the naughty person, and what he really thinks is that the entire region should be rendered permanently uninhabitable and all its residents should be vapourised.

 

[C_Felix]

Will getting rid of ISIS solve the problem(s)?

 

[The Don]

I think in my first post, I acknowledged that it would be anything but easy. It still seems like a worthwhile long-term goal.

I'm questioning whether it's a worthwhile long-term goal, to create a state which will almost certainly be a destabilising influence in the region. Kurdistan will already have implacable enemies in the form of Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran and by one remove will also have Russia agitating in the region. Kurdistan's oil wealth will enable it to fund insurrection (or terrorism if you prefer) in those countries.

All because we feel sorry for one ethnic grouping in a region full of ethnic groupings each with a set of territorial claims many of which conflict.

 

[Archie Gemmill Goal]

if we redrew a couple borders that only exist because the British drew lines at random.

Who is 'we' in this equation and what right do they have to redraw other countries' borders to suit their own needs?

 

[Blaster]

Will getting rid of ISIS solve the problem(s)?

It doesn't remove the conditions whereby ISIS emerges.

How Islamic Law can take on ISIS:

http://theconversation.com/how-islamic-law-can-take-on-isis-50113

In addition to the religious aspect, there is of course economic and social conditions that need to be addressed.

 

[Loss Leader]

Who is 'we' in this equation and what right do they have to redraw other countries' borders to suit their own needs?

Excellent point - yet another roadblock I in the way of a resolution.

 

[Belz...]

My proposal is the best so far.

Only because you think it makes sense. But just because you can come up with a narrative doesn't mean it's realistic.

 

[ponderingturtle]

For all it's worth, the Kurds have been kicked around for the better part of forever. They're a despised minority in Turkey (which made even learning the Kurdish language a crime), though Turkey won't even entertain the idea of letting them secede. They're a minority in Iraq and were, at best, ignored completely under Hussein.

Well that's certainly a nice summary of the Kurdish narrative and shows how effectively they've managed the process.

The only solution is to cleanse all the groups out of the area and start over, they are all horrible so none of them can be given power.

 

[ponderingturtle]

Will getting rid of ISIS solve the problem(s)?

As it is as much an ideology as anything else what does it even mean to get rid of it?