The Problem with ISIS

(RealClearWorld) Aaron David Miller - ISIS, along with the phenomenon of global jihad it represents, is here to stay - not as an existential threat but as a chronic one. ISIS has spawned 50 affiliates in 21 countries. The Paris attacks last November were supposed to be a transformative moment in the war against ISIS, and yet the inconvenient and painful reality is that there is no effective coalition, either in the region or among the international community, that is seized with the ISIS problem. No external power, including the U.S., wants to deploy ground personnel in the thousands to root out ISIS, nor thinks that this idea is wise or feasible. The Arab states are unwilling and unable to join the military fight on the ground and to deploy their own forces. Even if the U.S. and its partners manage to inflict massive damage to the Caliphate, the long war against global jihad will continue. The writer, a vice president at the Woodrow Wilson Center, served as a Middle East negotiator, analyst and adviser in Republican and Democratic administrations.


2016-02-19 00:00:00

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