So, when the United States is finalizing its Syria withdrawal plan, Baghdadi and his men are busy nailing down their tactical operations for the future. Interesting!
Interesting? They are on a "mission from God," as Strategypage often puts it. The most committed are not easily discouraged. Of course they are trying to figure out how they can keep killing post-caliphate. So what to do, according to the author?
The more conventional military attacks the POTUS authorizes against the terrorist group, the more collateral damage there will be, and the more it will play into the hands of ISIS. The aggrieved people that are part of the collateral damage will create more recruiting opportunities for the group.
On the other hand, employing psyops can help the United States decimate ISIS from within. It not only helps in cracking the ideology but, if done appropriately with appropriate intelligence gathering, can also help launch pick and choose precise attacks targeted against ISIS leadership.
What rot. While we should of course be careful in avoiding needless civilian deaths, we have to keep killing jihadis. They don't need our help to hate--they hate everyone.
They deserve no quarter. Jihadis are committed, murdering scum. They won't be persuaded with clever information operations. That's why they have to be killed.
I only want to understand--or decipher--our jihadi enemies enough to kill them wherever we can. Don't bother trying to kill just the committed jihadis. Kill every single one we can hit. Do that and the less ruthless and committed jihadis will check out of the jihad.
And maybe without so many jihadis running around killing Moslems, too, in large numbers, the Islamic world can make sure that normal, decent Moslems win the civil war raging across their territories and communities to determine who defines Islam--the murderous jihadi minority or the decent majority. When that happens the less-committed won't see the appeal of answering the call to jihad.
UPDATE: Related information on Afghanistan (and the intertwined Pakistan problem where the military's "silent coup" in 2017 made that problem worse) from Strategypage, where the last thing the Taliban fear is America's ability to decipher them.
UPDATE: A good effort but still not enough:
The 1st Ranger Battalion’s members ran 198 combat missions that resulted in 1,900 terrorists killed or captured in their most recent deployment.
Keep going.
