"We cannot beat ISIS by killing them"

Roger that, they should be aired exclusively on Comedy Central!

The irony is that we are actually responsible for more airstrikes on ISIS than every other involved nation combined (over half of them).

PO1 Jennifer Purcell, and here are a few of the jobs our job fair participants landed!

If it's not jobs, what do they want? Big Government not telling them what to do or how to do it? Un-fracked Water supply? No KXL? The poor and uneducated killing-off the poor and uneducated for the profit of the rich and powerful?

"Poverty in itself festers and spreads into bigger problems" The money they are getting through the oil they are selling on the market, the payed ransoms and the selling of women on the open market aren't going to help impoverished people, they are going to buy more instruments of terror. They do not want to drive out infidels, they want to conquer those not like them.

Your comment reminded me of this article I read about ISIS. It is long, but well worth the read if you have time. It gives a lot of insight into the mentality behind the group- things I didn't know before, and things they definitely don't talk about in the news. There is a part where they talk about funding of the group. And you're right that they use the money earned for their own benefit, not to help the people. They are apparently also stealing antiquities and selling them to the highest bidder. Things that are supposedly sacred or carry a story of their history.
Even still, the point this woman was making in the news was about the complexities of terrorism and why people are so easily recruited. There is some truth to that and people don't want to hear it. People don't want to humanize the terrorists- and I get it. I want them dead too. But we have to remember they are human and find a way to understand their side or think like them if we have any hope of defeating them. Knowing your enemy is a big part of the battle. A lot of service memebers at our level don't take the time to research or understand the bigger picture. Kind of like the pawn in the chess game- just move this way or that way and that's all they know. But chess is bigger than just those little moves.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/

I used the burger to highlight the absurd.

LTC (Join to see) -Sir, burning McDonalds is bad? Should we simply call 911 instead?

SGT James Elphick - There is some truth to "Hearts and Minds". In a culture accustomed to violence on a daily bases, the threat (or use) of violence does little to sway a mindset. Additionally, some of these people are EXTREMELY intelligent, despite the popular claims that they are all "stupid goat fuckers". Some of the ways that they created to utilize attacks on our troops amazed me, so I hold them in high regards as far as their capacity for tactical decision-making.

However, I think it's still got to be a balance. You can't go in and start playing "Haji head Soccer", but at the same time, the population needs to understand that 1.) You mean business, and 2.) If you promise to protect someone, you can protect them. Protection doesn't mean "I'll let you go to the United States," because not everyone wants to GO to the US. But they need to know that you can offer help to them and the villagers around that are friendly and sympathetic to the restructuring.

Additionally, we need to quit thinking that the world thinks like us. I'm sorry, democracy isn't for everyone. The middle east has been used to an authoritarian government for MILLENNIA, so to change that runs the risk of destabilizing the entire regional infrastructure.

I do agree that various practices need to change, and am by no means endorsing the methods of the Taliban....but to think that we are going to fix it by giving them a vote, or that this change will take place in the span of a few years (or even a single lifetime), is almost laughable.

We have been fighting racism in the United States for 150 years now, and it is still present, and that has been a far less ingrained behavior than the tribal politics.
v/r,
CPT Butler

CPT (Join to see) Thank you for your well thought reponse.

LTC (Join to see) how is fighting against the people who bombed your school "absurd"? It was you who said "If I come to your home and try to behead you or burn you alive, are you going to try a nuanced approach? Somehow I believe you will throw nuance out the window and directly fight for your survival. If not, then Darwin's observation of the fittest seems to apply." I fail to see the difference.

The difference is: Micro vs. Macro. We are taking band-aid actions with no wholistic objective other than to continue band-aid actions. While you and I continue to have inane discussions that are at best academic, nothing is being done; decisive or indecisive. We are "fiddling" while Rome burns. Note: I was not calling you inane. I appreciate the dialogue.

That was kind of done in the Philippine-American War and then the U.S. Government built and ran schools there, and bridges, etc. My high school classmate there always said, "He who wins the war writes history". And so it is. He joined the Philippine military and died.

SFC James Sczymanski After these years, there are organizations of neo-nazis around the world.

SFC James Sczymanski Yes, appropriate scale of force is needed to deal with the situation. However, what's the long term strategy to prevent this happening again? Do we have to keep spending money to fight the terrorism forever? Or there is a smarter choice to deal with it?

An appropriate application of force is needed, yes. And the U.S. is responsible for the vast majority of airstrikes against ISIS. But selling another war to the U.S. public and the Congress (especially in Iraq again) isn't so easy, and may not be our best option.

Interesting point about neo-nazis, here is a question though... go to one of those areas where neo-nazis are somewhat active and then replicate the conditions of the Middle East. Put a cruel dictatorship in charge, double or triple the unemployment rate, put boots on the ground from a nation they consider an enemy and see what happens to the impotent neo-nazi organizations running around the country today.