How to Fight ISIS by Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.

There are two types of war ... and we are losing both ..

Child killed by Israeli bombing	The unrelated growth of ISIS
U.S. Jets attacking ISIS.	Palestinians fleeing Israeli genocide.

ISIS fighters have grown in number from 10 to 20 K to about 40K over the last couple of months. Our response, especially after the beheading of U.S. journalists, more bombs.  The ISIS fighters promise a Caliphate for Muslims.

A caliphate (in Arabic: خلافة‎ khilāfa, meaning "succession") is an Islamic state led by a supreme religious and political leader known as a caliph – i.e. "successor" – to Muhammad. The succession of Muslim empires that have existed in the Muslim world are usually described as "caliphates". Conceptually, a caliphate represents a sovereign state of the entire Muslim faithful, (the Ummah), ruled by a caliph under Islamic law (sharia).

Okay, us Westerns have no idea about Caliphs.  But, it is a big deal to Muslims, especially the conservative religious fundamentalists to use our Western Terminology.  Military advisers, yea the same ones that have spent a trillion dollars in the Middle East conquering terrorists advise that we need boots on the ground to fight ISIS especially considering their growth and their followings around the world.  And their popularity is not just coming from Muslim countries but it is flourishing in places like England.

Well, who is this Caliphate going to lead the Muslims against.  Hint, it was U.S. journalists that were beheaded.  This is a continuation of the bigger plan to lure us first into conflict in Afghanistan, then Iraq and now against ISIS. Their glory comes from engaging the evil tyrant that leads the Western world that is full of sin and promiscuous behavior.   Much of our status is not deserved, we came into the Middle East innocently thanks to master plan of Bin Laden and one of the master brains behind Bin Laden, Sayyid Qutb, intellectual father of the anti-Western jihad.

What did Qutb teach.  First, he noted that the Western World had separated State from Religion. In the West he notes that religion was no longer guiding the affairs of the State.  The Western world also believes power for the state comes from the people, not god.  People have made themselves into Idols he reckons.  The Caliphate is a supreme ruler where matters of the state, the laws, the people are all subject to the religious ruler.  What did Qutb need to pull this all together. He needed a common enemy of Islam.  He was too radical for Egypt who put him in prison where he expounded on his philosophies to the Muslim Brotherhood, yep, the same one that has been banned from Egypt after being in power for a few decades.

The grand plan looks like this.  Poke the giant embodiment of evil, the U.S., hence 9/11.  Bonus time is when we went after Iraq on bogus WMD making it look like a war against Muslims.  Follow that up with backing sectarian rule of the Shiites in Baghdad that kills Sunnis. Is it surprising a radical Sunnis group arises to take revenge?

We tell them, we believe in due process of law, just not in Guantanamo Bay for Muslims. We tell them, we believe in democracy and then help Iraq oust all Sunnis from power. We tell them we should live by the law, then back Israel in building new Settlements against international law agreements. We tell them that we believe in self-determination, then help Israel deny self-determination to the Palestinians for 65 years. We tell them to follow the rules of war and then Abu Ghraib torture 

and prisoner abuse occurs.  We tell them Asad in 

Syria  bombs his own people and then give Israel one billion 

in military aid to bomb and kill 2500 people, mostly 

citizens in Gaza.

We have two paths to go down in the Middle East.  The one we have been on: military engagement with big guns, drones, superior fire power.   The result so far, trillions of dollars down the tube and our enemy now able to recruit troops not just from the Middle East but from around the world.  And money, it is pouring into ISIS from the Saudi's and Muslims around the world.  We have given them so much to work with ...  How naive can be, and how long can we stay that way?

Another approach to win the war in the Middle East might be to follow the principle we proclaim so virtuously. We might start by keeping our promises, made 65 years ago, to the Palestinians to have their own country.  Make Israel give back the land they have taken from the Palestinians, make them rebuild Gaza at their own expense, and face International courts on war crimes.  How do we make them.  We cut the billion dollars in military aid that we give them each year.  We quit supplying them missiles, usually free for their Iron Dome.  Israel simply can not stand up without it Big Brother protecting its flank.  And Israel can not continue to be unjust to the Palestinians without Big Brother's help.  And, we can not be seen as the good guys when we protect the murdering of 2500 men, women and children in indiscriminate bombing and artillery shelling of Gaza.  
How can we think it is okay to trap six million people in a 10 mile by 13 mile area then rain in artillery shells? And we think beheading two people is cruel?

When ISIS is seeking recruits do you think they hear about Guantanamo Bay? We could start by giving the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay due process of law.  Do you think they hear how we treat the children from South America when they come here to get away from the drug lords that we help create?   Do you think they hear about the ten thousand killings each year with guns much of it in the poor minority areas of America?  Do you think they hear about all the highest per capita prison population in the world, mostly dark skinned people that look like them?  Do you think they hear about police shooting unarmed people walking down the street and then not having to face due process of law?  Do you think they hear about the U.S. Military giving police departments $450 million dollars of surplus military equipment to equip police departments to fight its own citizens?  Do you think they hear about the rich getting huge tax breaks while some people on our minimum wage are homeless? Do you think you could use this material to recruit people to fight against us?

We severely underestimate our enemies.  The 9/11 terrorists were no dummies.  What they did was sophisticated and well planned, not only physically but philosophically.  We have waged a physical war as we continue doing to this day.  They are waging a sophisticated philosophical war that we have not even understood, much less have we attempted to engage in either verbally or by our actions. 

We have become self-righteous and unable to see how easily it is to portray us as being evil.  We have deserted many of the principles we have stood for in an attempt to run up the body count.  Do we think with billions of muslims on the plant, with percent 10 to 20% of them fundamentalists (yea, about the same fraction of fundamentalist christian followers) that they are going to run out of people or resources.  We learned (or not) in Vietnam that you cannot defeat an enemy that believes enough in his cause to die for it, you can only kill the first person in the infinite line that forms of believers in that cause.  

War has become an international affair of one set of beliefs against a conflicting set of beliefs.  The stages change, but each side attempts to make the other side the bad guys.  Each gathers the information that is delivered on the Internet platter, puts their spin on it, and serves it up to their followers.  In such a war, it is the one that does the most killing, that commits the most atrocious acts of war, the one that is the most unjust that ultimately loses. From our side, the beheading of two American journalists is awful, from their side the killing of 2500 Palestinians by American's hit man, Israel, is a thousand times worse. What is our defense?

To win the wars in the Middle East we are going to have to do what is right, not what is easy. We are going to have to stand up for our principles even when we are dealing with people whose values are 180 degrees opposite from ours. We may even have to do random acts of kindness. Perhaps take on the ebola war? Or help Palestinians have their own country? Or help the Syrian refugees. Or build Gaza an airport or allow them to fish to feed their people? These things will slow the flood of resources into ISIS. Another trillion in bombs and drones will give exponential rise to ISIS and their successors.

Robert R. Odle, Ph.D.