May 21, 2016
Some Considerations on Dealing with ISIS
Keith Nightingale
The Brussels bombing is a precursor for a Boston or Baltimore or fill in the blank city within our own borders. ISIS is a cancer on civilization that has to be eradicated so we do not live perpetually in fear. ISIS and its adherents and wannabe’s can only be defeated by the most concerted, aggressive and emotionless actions. Take heed of the Roman objective with their mortal enemy, Carthage.
Plow the city to ruins and sow it with salt.
This is what needs to be done with ISIS. But it will require a radical change in our outlook, temperament and acceptability for internal proscriptions. In our daily life, for the duration of this campaign, we will need to harden our hearts and accept the unacceptable and endure the unendurable. In sum, we need to be harder, more committed and more intelligent than this raging beast we face. We need to sacrifice some comforts for a better outcome.
We are at war. Our traditional barriers of the Atlantic and Pacific are now transit venues rather than barriers to penetration. Our airports and sea ports are now our first line of defense and combat. Our population today is as much a combatant body as any army in being and needs to focus more on salvation than personal proclivities. Above all, we need to be united in purpose and resolve. As John Donne said, No man is an island-nor is a nation.
We know that our country is the true ultimate target of ISIS. Our annihilation or destruction are the ultimate goals of this dark beast. Belgium, France and Europe are just warmups and test beds for methodology, tactics and target focus. In the not too distant future, we will have airports, sports events, schools, ports and assemblies as ground zero for its deadly incursions. As a nation, and in the midst of a highly emotional and contentious political battle, we will have to decide if we take charge of the issue or allow the issue to take charge of us as is now the case. Throughout our history, reaction has never been a better approach than initiative. The great advantage we hold in this game is that there is no force on our planet more potent than an aroused democracy. At present, we are conflictive, confused and without the necessary leadership to effectively address the issue.
The first thing we must do is reach a general consensus that we must develop a level playing field with the enemy and temporarily accept what was previously considered anathema. The nature of ISIS requires totally unconventional protectionist actions to be defeated. Our internal intelligence collection organizations have to convert to systems, techniques and measures that we employ in foreign wars but legislate against at home. ISIS is amongst us as Mao’s fish swimming within our populated sea. Only if we plunge into that water will we discern the good from the bad. This is a time for personal concerns to submit to our greater needs as contrary as that is to our general historic sensibilities.
The borders and entrance points are the arteries that feed our nation. The screening and passage protocols need to be at least as difficult for the enemy infiltrators as our national patience and level of personal discomfort can endure.
Our police need to be better integrated with our national elements-the FBI, DEA, ABTF and Secret Service. Intelligence sharing has never been a high priority with these elements. The true units on point in this struggle are the small walking patrol, community security police that are immersed in their local societies. This traditionally, is where the best intelligence is developed. Quality HUMINT is the core of success.
Abroad, we have significant options should we choose to use them. Our present policy of great sensitivity toward collateral damage and civilian casualties ought to be reduced to the barest minimum ethical standard. The families and associates of ISIS harbor the cancer, support it and provide emotional underpinnings. Their proximity should be the penalty for their society. Our soldiers and Marines should be vested with the authority to react and respond with whatever wherewithal is on hand without interference from faceless committees not physically engaged. We need to recognize that accidents will always happen but the pain should rest on their side, not ours.
Money for ISIS is the same as money for the drug industry-it is the lifeblood of the organization and its most vulnerable point. The portions of the oil industry that sustain ISIS should be interdicted to the point of elimination. Our very effective financial tracking system ought to be used more efficiently to stop or sequester the sophisticated systems ISIS has developed to hide and transfer these funds.
Our sensitivities toward the social media and telephonic systems need to be at least as balanced as ISIS’ ability to use them. If a site or address is determined to be supportive, it should be eliminated or blocked. Associative relationships should become immediate law enforcement targets for study. This will cause significant privacy penalties from what we today consider acceptable-but that is the price we have to pay for a better penetration of their system. This is a temporary, not permanent fix. Consider that Lincoln statutorily negated the Writ of Habeas Corpus during the Civil War. We are not there, but we may be close.
Our sensitivities toward overt intervention in the lands of ISIS ought to tempered with the knowledge that these lands are the same as our own homeland-here the evil is born, bred and distributed and can be eliminated at a distance from our population. Neutralization here equates to greater security at home. Other nations can choose to either accept our interventions or pay the price of our punishment. International political correctness is a poison we need not swallow. We are the greatest and most powerful nation on the earth. This threat requires us to act the part for our own well-being. We have a myriad of assets and capabilities we have chosen to leave on the shelf.
Our present situation conflicts with our historic model of friend and enemy. Our convenient compartments and definitions no longer apply. Our population is the target and is the enemy from ISIS’ viewpoint. Women and children are viewed by them as the most vulnerable and therefore the favored targets. There is no off limits targets or neutral body in their mind. ISIS can only be effectively neutralized by crushing its parts and people. Half measures only serve to encourage the beast of darkness and present us to the world as Nixon’s pitiful helpless giant which we now appear to be.
We are at a point where there is not much time between the incident in Brussels and an incident in Baltimore or other part of our land. We can continue to muddle, wander and weave on this issue, cling to our desires and not our realities and demand that present rights, privileges and expectations be maintained. But we are only playing their game and hastening the moment when they announce their presence on our soil. They can never defeat the nation or occupy it in force, but they can wreak such havoc that we will emerge a society that huddles in its homes and harbors great fears. Or, we can harden our hearts, strengthen our resolve and forge a unified purpose that will, in time, be lifted when ISIS becomes a footnote and not a fact.
COL Nightingale is a retired Army Colonel who served two tours in Vietnam with Airborne and Ranger (American and Vietnamese) units. He commanded airborne battalions in both the 509th Parachute Infantry Regiment and the 82nd Airborne Division. He later commanded both the 1/75th Rangers and the 1st Ranger Training Brigade.
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