High up on that list is the late Caliph Baghdadi who it appears had his last moment on earth staring at the approaching teeth of an American military working dog … probably a Belgian Malinois. (NB: we still don’t have all the details we need, but it appears this canine hero will recover from its wounds).
Forget those who are trying to diminish the importance of killing this medieval genocidal maniac, sit down; this is nothing but good news. First and primary; that this was an act of justice. No other nation has the ability or force of will to kill this guy – so as with OBL, it is up to us to do these things. We should do them gladly and without apology.
Our wheels of justice may grind slow, but when given the green light – they grind fine.
This will impact the Islamic State significantly. This was their Adolf Hitler. With him gone, so is much of the cult of personality. IS will get a new leader, but he will only be a fraction of the founder. In time, we will find and kill him too, and they will get a new leader.
We will mow the grass like that for years, because when it comes to fighting IS, we can only significantly address the tactical and operational level. Those Centers of Gravity we can undermine – but the strategic Center of Gravity? No. We can only be a supporting vice supported entity.
The strategic Center of Gravity of IS is the religious justification for their existence. Only the Muslim world can undermine that. IS will be with us in one form or another for a long time, just like AQ. At their core, they are a religious order. Once established, they are the hardest to eliminate.
So, celebrate and be thankful that the only concern Americans have right now is a wounded pooch.
A final point. The last two days have been very instructive and a good filtering mechanism for your natsec sources. There are good people in the natsec world from both left and right, but there are also a lot of bad players. Especially in an election year, they can soak up a lot of airtime and print space preventing the public from getting good info.
When listening to commentary about Baghdadi’s killing, keep a weather eye out. There is good commentary on both sides, but they are the wheat in a blizzard of chaff.
You can break the chaff in to four main breeds who you should tag for future use when evaluating the value of their input:
Grifters: true “pay for play” they will take whatever position that they feel will get them airtime, or for a few, make their sponsors and underwriters write more checks. Pro or anti-Trump … they are objects of scorn, not pity.
True Believers: sad little creatures, they really think that anything we do involving the military – especially aggressive killing kind of things – just are not “who we are” or create more problems. Well-meaning people, but just wrong.
Terminal Trump Derangement Syndrome: you know these types; anything associated with Trump that might make him look good must be attacked or if nothing else, ignored. The “that photo is fake” push early on was a classic tell. Some of these are cross-pollinated with the Grifter and True Believer types. I’m no Trump guy … but these TDS extremists make me defend him way more than I am comfortable doing.
Partisans First: these are simply party people. Those with an (R) next to their name will look you in the face and tell you that short hair on a (R) is great but on a (D) is bad. Those with a (D) next to their name will say just the opposite. I don’t think even they know what they really believe anymore – they just get high off their own fumes.
In the end, a very bad guy is dead. For now, that should be enough.
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