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To Defeat ISIS, We Must Take the Iranian Threat Seriously
(USA Today) Dennis Ross - To defeat ISIS we must blunt its appeal. ISIS claims to have a divine mandate. Suffering military defeats can demonstrate the hollowness of this claim. Ultimately, we need the Sunnis - clerics, tribes and governments - to discredit and replace ISIS on the ground. If Sunnis are politically and economically excluded and repressed, it will be only a matter of time before we see the next incarnation of ISIS. Sunnis see a predatory Iran using Shiite militias to dominate the region and fear the U.S. is ready to acquiesce in their dominance. Until we can show we take the Iranian threat seriously, and will work with our Sunni partners to raise the cost to Iran of its destabilizing actions, the Sunnis will be unlikely to play the role that only they can against ISIS. The writer, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was a senior Middle East adviser to President Obama from 2009 to 2011.