ISIS doesn't have a lot of friends in the region; I discount a lot of the fear-mongering coming from the usual quarters that ISIS is some kind of super-predator terrorist group. They're a desperate bunch of people using the most extreme methods to advance their cause. I think they're doing it for a couple of reasons: First, the aforementioned desperation. They don't have many choices. Second, they think they can count on the United States overreacting to their brutality. We've done it before, for sure. Part of their plan is to look like martyrs dying for a noble cause, pushed to the brink by the American Empire.
A united front with Europe is a very good start. ISIS is probably not walking around the deserts of Iraq with millions of dollars hanging out of their pockets. Find out where their money is, who is providing them banking services, and explain to them (whether it's the Swiss, the Saudis or whomever) that it isn't in their best interests to do business with these people. ISIS's funding would dry up overnight if its
Yes, some people will undoubtedly die at the hands of ISIS. But that's going to happen no matter what we do. We can minimize the death and destruction by proceeding as if Iraq was a crime scene instead of a war zone. Identify and apprehend the criminals. Try them in open court. Convict them. Incarcerate them for a long time. Wasting away in a prison cell isn't quite as sexy and attractive as dying young while striking a blow against the empire.
It means the United States has to betray its own national religion, and tell the acolytes of the High Church of Redemptive Violence (paging Bill Kristol and his cohort of blood gargling psychopaths) that their day is over. It doesn't put a lot of money into the pockets of the merchants of death, it doesn't elevate reporters into the lofty realms of war correspondents, it doesn't make for exciting explosions on the teevee. But it doesn't kill thousands or millions indiscriminately, and it likely doesn't spawn a new, even more aggressive successor to ISIS.
While all this is going on, we start working in Iraq to repair some of the damage we've done. Start rebuilding their infrastructure. Send young people over there to work instead of blast people to smithereens. And when they've acquired some skills, bring them back to the U.S. to do the same thing here. Let the Iraqis take over, and take ownership of the new roads, buildings, houses, schools, water mains, and so forth. With something of their own to defend, something they built themselves (with our help), they might be more inclined to work for and hold on to a stable society. Their young people will have prospects instead of a broken country, and be less likely to turn to terrorism.
Yeah, it will take time and a sustained effort, and we're not very good at that. But we really should start practicing to get better at it.
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