The Islamic State is not defeated. Trump must reverse his decision to withdraw from Syria. - Jennife

[TomSea]

The Islamic State is not defeated. Trump must reverse his decision to withdraw from Syria.
Jennifer Cafarello

The Islamic State is not defeated. Trump must reverse his decision to withdraw from Syria.

Jennifer Cafarella is the director of intelligence planning at the Institute for the Study of War.

The Islamic State is not defeated. No matter how many times President Trump says that the United States has won so that he can justify his shocking decision to withdraw from Syria, it is simply not true. His unexpected order — contradicting what senior administration officials were saying hours before and issued after little consultation with the military or Congress — will accelerate an Islamic State recovery, already underway in Iraq and Syria, and reverse years of American counterterrorism efforts, which could set the stage for another 9/11.

The timing and nature of the U.S. withdrawal is terrible. We are racing for the exits at a moment when our gains against the Islamic State are fragile. U.S.-backed forces in Syria were close to seizing a final pocket of the group’s territory in southeastern Syria after a hard-fought campaign. Those operations were still ongoing at the time of Trump’s announcement, but will surely have to stop if U.S. troops must meet the 30-day withdrawal timeline that Trump conjured, apparently from nowhere. Even seizing these last few villages would not have defeated the group, however.

The Islamic State was a terrorist group and an insurgency before becoming an army and a caliphate. Deprived of its territory and army, it has reverted to its roots. It is waging a capable insurgency behind front lines in both Iraq and Syria against military forces. The cities we seized from the Islamic State in Syria have been destroyed and are largely ungoverned. The population that U.S.-backed forces has ostensibly liberated has nowhere to turn. These conditions are similar to those left behind in Iraq after President Barack Obama’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (the Islamic State’s forerunner) had been beaten back even more thoroughly than the Islamic State has been, yet it was able to regroup and seize large swaths of Iraq and Syria within a few years.

Read more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2018/12/20/islamic-state-is-not-defeated-trump-must-reverse-his-decision-withdraw-syria/?utm_term=.101f2ddc79b4

BTW, there may be a paywall.  Jennifer is with ISW, Institute for the study of war. Sometimes, I wonder if people like her, Katie Pavlich (and this is probably not true now at least, for Katie) are just fronts for articles.

Jennifer Cafarello



Her twitter: https://twitter.com/JennyCafarella

Good article, I suspect, it will be republished where it can be read without charge.

People like her, must go to Georgetown or other prestigious school for international studies.  This is Neo-Con-ish/CFR type stuff but it doesn't mean it is wrong.

[Fishrrman]

TomSea wrote:
"People like her, must go to Georgetown or other prestigious school for international studies.  This is Neo-Con-ish/CFR type stuff but it doesn't mean it is wrong."

She talks the talk, but why don' she walk the walk ??

Send her to fight.

Bring our troops home.

[TomSea]

TomSea wrote:
"People like her, must go to Georgetown or other prestigious school for international studies.  This is Neo-Con-ish/CFR type stuff but it doesn't mean it is wrong."

She talks the talk, but why don' she walk the walk ??

Send her to fight.

Bring our troops home.

She's obviously, not soft on Islamic terrorism and ISIS. I don't find that to be a fault.  I don't need them. Her grandfather served in World War II, she has every right to speak if not from her own experience, from others in her family.

[sneakypete]

Jennifer Cafarella is the director of intelligence planning at the Institute for the Study of War.

ROMLMAO!   

Maybe Jenny can splain to all us mere former and present enlisted swine how if we would just continue to do the same things we have been doing and failing with for decades,that sooner or later it will work?

Or maybe she could just tell us about a few bayonet charges she has led?

People like her, must go to Georgetown or other prestigious school for international studies.

What do you think the odds are that she is the daughter of a "connected" Beltway family?

This is Neo-Con-ish/CFR type stuff but it doesn't mean it is wrong.

Yeah,it does. When you have the ignorant teaching the ignorant,what else CAN it be?

 

[sneakypete]

she has every right to speak if not from her own experience,

@TomSea

Which is of course,none at all.

from others in her family.

Say WHAT? Did she storm the beach at Normandy with her grandfather?

You gain experience by DOING something. It can't be inherited.

[TomSea]

Senators Cotton and Ernst, seem to share the same sentiments as Cafarello, go try to squelch their free speech with shaming them. Shows a weak argument for what it is, and for a country that exists, largely because of the assistance of allies, the French Navy, at least, there are some who don't care to abandon our allies, allies, who again, defeated one of the greatest evils since World War II.





Others are effectively, for growing more terrorism, for more refugees.

Write Senators Cotton and Ernst because they have the same views and they have been there and have done that!

Might as well, say Trump doesn't have the experience.

Oh, and Lindsay Graham too. I know Cotton and Ernst signed a letter.

See full letter at below link:

In conclusion, we encourage you to reconsider your proposal to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria to ensure that our nation’s strategic interests are secured.

Sincerely,

Lindsey O. Graham                                                    Jeanne Shaheen

United States Senator                                                 United States Senator

 

Joni Ernst                                                                    Angus S. King Jr.

United States Senator                                                 United States Senator

 

Tom Cotton                                                                 Marco Rubio

United States Senator                                                  United States Senator

https://www.ernst.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=F11C5D14-70E7-479F-BDEB-9F274BB3294B
 

[sneakypete]

Senators Cotton and Ernst, seem to share the same sentiments as Cafarello, go try to squelch their free speech with shaming them. Shows a weak argument for what it is, and for a country that exists, largely because of the assistance of allies, the French Navy, at least, there are some who don't care to abandon our allies, allies, who again, defeated one of the greatest evils since World War II.





Others are effectively, for growing more terrorism, for more refugees.

Write Senators Cotton and Ernst because they have the same views and they have been there and have done that!

Might as well, say Trump doesn't have the experience.

@TomSea

Crap piled high is still a pile of crap.