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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChelsea Manning breaks silence to criticise Obama's Isis strategy
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/16/chelsea-manning-criticises-obama-isis-strategyChelsea Manning, the US army soldier who worked as an intelligence analyst in Iraq before being arrested for passing state secrets to WikiLeaks, says the only way to defeat Isis is to allow the group to set up its own contained failed state where over time its fire would die out on its own.
Writing in the Guardian, Manning says her experience as an all-source analyst near Baghdad in 2009-10 leads her to doubt the strategy being followed by the Obama administration. She warns that the US-led mission to destroy the extremist group is destined to failure because it will merely feed a cycle of outrage, recruitment, organizing and even more fighting that goes back decades.
Even with the support of non-western forces, attacking Isis directly from the air or with special forces on the ground risks mission creep and the repeat of past errors. I believe that Isis strategically feeds off the mistakes and vulnerabilities of the very democratic western states they decry, she writes.
Presenting a radical alternative blueprint for how to deal with the extremist group, Manning argues that the best way to degrade Isis is to allow it to set up a failed state within a clearly demarcated territory. There, Isis would gradually become unpopular and unable to govern, she predicts, and the ideology of its leadership would be discredited in the region, potentially forever.
Writing in the Guardian, Manning says her experience as an all-source analyst near Baghdad in 2009-10 leads her to doubt the strategy being followed by the Obama administration. She warns that the US-led mission to destroy the extremist group is destined to failure because it will merely feed a cycle of outrage, recruitment, organizing and even more fighting that goes back decades.
Even with the support of non-western forces, attacking Isis directly from the air or with special forces on the ground risks mission creep and the repeat of past errors. I believe that Isis strategically feeds off the mistakes and vulnerabilities of the very democratic western states they decry, she writes.
Presenting a radical alternative blueprint for how to deal with the extremist group, Manning argues that the best way to degrade Isis is to allow it to set up a failed state within a clearly demarcated territory. There, Isis would gradually become unpopular and unable to govern, she predicts, and the ideology of its leadership would be discredited in the region, potentially forever.
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Chelsea Manning breaks silence to criticise Obama's Isis strategy (Original Post)
grahamhgreen
Sep 2014
OP
In my view, they are setting him up for an abuse if power impeachment if he doesn't get a new AUMF
grahamhgreen
Sep 2014
#3
Autumn
(45,034 posts)1. Her ideas make sense.
rec
Atman
(31,464 posts)2. Hard to argue with this one.
Last edited Tue Sep 16, 2014, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)
But what the heck...the MIC is calling the shots, and sadly our POTUS is doomed by Congress and the media. If he does nothing, he's weak and ineffectual, and ISIL will lop off another head for Fox "News" viewers to be outraged about. Now that he's doing something, he'll be pilloried for continuing the Endless War Doctrine. It's lose-lose for him...the MIC knows this and will profit handsomely from it.
The rest of us lose, too.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)3. In my view, they are setting him up for an abuse if power impeachment if he doesn't get a new AUMF
from Congress.
Atman
(31,464 posts)4. They'd impeach him for not changing his undewear if they could figure out how.
But I do believe you're right. This will probably be the first time Congress will actually be able to "accomplish" something.
grahamhgreen
(15,741 posts)5. I'm worried the war hawks in his cabinet are leading down a path to his
detriment.