Unfortunately, the United States’s strategies against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) are fundamentally flawed and doomed to fail. A review of the U.S. Joint Doctrine demonstrates that we lack both clear objectives and strategies. This is recipe for failure.

First, the matter of objectives. According to Joint Doctrine, objectives are the common thread that integrate and synchronize all planning activities. Objectives provide purpose and focus for the planning and employment of military forces and as such, they are the responsibility of the president and the secretary of defense. In short, the objective is simply the “what” of what you want to accomplish.