For what it is worth (and you’ll have to be the judge of that) most “security insiders” are skeptical when it comes to the president’s strategy for the fight with ISIS. As Kaveh Waddell of Government Executive reports:
The president’s strategy of launching air strikes against ISIS and arming its opponents will not achieve the goal of “degrading and destroying” the group, according to 63 percent of National Journal’s Security Insiders.
The “experts” were careful about parsing words, which seems to occupy more time and attention in Washington these days than actual discussions of strategy.
A number of Insiders said that the air strikes would degrade but not destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. “As we should have learned with al-Qaida,” one said, ” ‘destroying’ is an elusive objective.” Another elaborated: “We need to acknowledge that groups like this cannot be ‘destroyed’ in the sense of ceasing to exist. This is a struggle that will not end and that will never be completed.”
