The Long War Gets Longer

Take some time this AM to read the full interview with LTG Michael Flynn, USA (Ret) at Spiegel. The historical forensics are standard Spiegel, but Flynn manages in the interview to make a few forward looking observations that deserve time to absorb.

This little tid-bit is what stands out and needs to be fully understood for those who think this conflict would end if we could just end the Islamic State. 

No, though that is required, that won't end things.

At its core, and its real Strategic Center of Gravity, is its fundamental Islamic foundation. That is real, it can be defended by scripture, and it is universal. Each nation that has a Muslim population has the water for radical Islamists to swim in. 1%, 5%, or 10% of the total Muslim population? It does not matter.

As we have seen from Ft. Hood to Paris, it only takes 1, to 2, to 10 people with the will. For at least my lifetime, that is the new reality.

We know from debriefings that they have actually broken Raqqa down into international zones because of language barriers. They have put interpreters in place in those international zones in order to communicate and get their messages around. For example, the Australians alone have about 200 people.

There's even an Australian sector in Raqqa, and they're tied into the other English speakers because not everybody shows up speaking Arabic. This requires a military-like structure with military-like leadership.

These people will go home. They will act. They will influence.

They already have.

What are our plans to attack and undermine their Strategic CoG?

In many of the governments of the West, they won't even recognize that fact. Until they do, then we will not effectively address the issue at the Operational and Tactical level. As a result, this will grow, this will expand. This will not end.

The non-Muslim world can contain it, if it has the will. Ultimately, this iteration of radical Islam will have to be defeated within Islam. If that cannot be done, then the West has but one option; quarentine Islam to the areas it presently exists and stop the growth of Muslims importing themselves in to non-Muslim nations to mitigate the depth of the water the terrorists can swim in. 

History shows us that when it is in a waxing phase, radical Islam will expand and slaughter along its bleeing edge until it finds resistence. If you don't resist, then you become like the former Christian nations of N. Africa, Asia Minor, and the Middle East who failed to rise to the occasion.