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Assessing the Strategic Threat from ISIS

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) James F. Jeffrey - In the campaign to degrade and eventually destroy ISIS, I urge the administration to move faster, take more risks, apply more resources, and not assume "time is on our side." In the Middle East of today, it is not. ISIS is the latest of a long series of pan-regional Islamic movements that espouse violence, like al-Qaeda and to some degree political Islamic movements such as the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood. Its specific nature not only gives it significant resilience, but also an inevitable drive to inflict harm on the U.S. and other Western nations, either directly or by inspiring local jihadists. Certain steps could make the coalition campaign move forward faster and more effectively. These could include a higher tempo of airstrikes, the deployment of Joint Terminal Attack Coordination teams, using U.S. army artillery and attack helicopters, and providing heavier weapons to the Kurds. James F. Jeffrey, a former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor and Ambassador to Iraq, Turkey and Albania, is a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute. This is from his testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Feb. 12, 2015.
2015-02-13 00:00:00
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