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U.S. Grand Strategy Against ISIS and Al-Qaeda
(Institute for the Study of War) Jennifer Cafarella, Kimberly Kagan, and Frederick W. Kagan - The U.S. is fighting the wrong war in the Middle East. ISIS and al-Qaeda are waging population-centric insurgencies while we conduct counterterrorism operations by proxy. Defeating these groups requires the U.S. to pursue population-centric counterinsurgency by, with, and through acceptable and viable partners in Syria's and Iraq's Sunni Arab communities. Current U.S. strategy empowers al-Qaeda, which has an army in Syria and is preparing to replace ISIS. Iran and Iraqis aligned with Tehran are preparing to use the 2018 elections to replace Iraq's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi with a pro-Iranian candidate, who will likely order U.S. and coalition forces out of Iraq or curtail their actions below levels required to destroy ISIS and other jihadists.