Big Red Car here in the ATX. The Boss is in Memphis for a wedding after a week in Miramar and headed to Hilton Head for a few weeks. Sigh, just me and the house sitter?
Haha, house sitter is a very, very bad boy. But I won’t tell. He better get all the bottles and cans cleaned up.
So everyone recalls the President’s comment that wearing a Lakers jersey does not make one Kobe Bryant, a pejorative slur toward ISIS — those bloody bastards operating in Syria and Iraq. Everyone was quick to jump on the President when he made that comment and subsequent events showcased their brutality.
Guess what?
The President was absolutely correct. There, I’ve said it: THE PRESIDENT WAS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT! ISIS is a third rate rabble not worthy of even being considered an organized military force. They are an insignificant military threat but only if you go annihilate them right now before they grow real fangs.
Left unattended, this bunch of monsters will achieve sovereign statehood — the Caliphate — and will rally the entire Muslim world to their cause. They will export terrorism to Europe and North America wholesale. The FEBA — forward edge of the battle area — will shift from the Middle East to your front yard. This is not a good thing, y’all.
Military organization
The Brits say it takes two generations to develop an NCO corps. Non commissioned officers are the sergeants who run the military. They are the fire team leaders, the squad leaders, the platoon sergeants, the first sergeants and the sergeants major who provide the glue that makes individual soldiers into deadly teams.
Officers command the army. The company grade officers — lieutenants and captains — provide the leadership and tactical thinking which ensure that teams operate in cohesive support of each other and bring the combined arms mix (infantry, armor, artillery, air) to bear on the enemy.
Collectively these teams find, fix and destroy our enemies.
There is a reason why the study of war is called “military science.” It is a complicated and complex undertaking when done right. It is a huge force multiplier when done right.
ISIS has none of this. ISIS not only has none of this but they do not have an organizing theme — other than hatred and brutality — around which their rabble can rally.
ISIS
Much has been said about the near term successes of ISIS but most of this is simply puffery. ISIS has defeated enemies who have refused to fight. They have occupied territory which has been surrendered to them by Iraqi officers who have abandoned their units and changed from their uniforms into civilian clothes. These are offenses — desertion and cowardice in the face of the enemy — for which they should be executed and would be under the American Uniform Code of Military Justice.
ISIS has not won any hard fought military engagements. They are a rabble who has overrun cowards.
What they are, in fact, is a bunch of cutthroats who bury men, women and children alive. They behead defenseless prisoners. They tear women limb from limb. They ruthlessly execute opponents. This organizing theme is not the philosophy which will bring forth a superior military force. It is the practice of scum bags and their resulting military force will operationally reflect this madness and evil.
Call to action
In the business of asymmetric warfare — warfare conducted by slippery organizations rather than sovereign nations — it is difficult to get the enemy to come out of their holes and offer battle. Right now, ISIS is offering battle in fairly limited areas but in concentrated formations which scream out for a decisive engagement and their total destruction.
There are likely something less than 30,000 ISIS thugs available for the killing and the world should give them a chance to die for their cause. We should destroy them totally. We should annihilate them. We should demand and deliver complete, total victory. It is within our grasp.
It will require decisive, swift and violent action. Now. Not in a few months, right now.
Consequences
Every decision to act carries consequences. Every decision not to act similarly carries consequences.
The failure to act — Hitler, Chamberlain, Munich Agreement, “peace in our times” — often carries far more serious consequences. Had the Europeans acted when Hitler had taken his first aggressive steps, when the German Army was a pipe dream, they could have prevented World War II.
If we act now, we will avoid countless deaths and blood shed in the immediate future,
Now is the time to act. Now is the time to decisively engage ISIS and kill them in the cradle. Secretary of Defense Hagel does us a huge disservice when he describes ISIS in fearsome terms. ISIS would not be a meaningful appetizer for the 82nd Airborne on their worst day. Now is the time for boldness and decisive engagement to wipe this evil from the earth. Now.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.
