Military Review English Edition March-April 2016 | Page 16

worldly pleasures, rewards, and adventure in addition
to spiritual salvation through Jihad.
We must also recognize that IS members do not
see their activities as immoral or repulsive. Quite the
contrary, they feel morally justified in their actions
based on the belief system that underpins their actions.
As a result, we must be careful not to underestimate
our enemies’ intellectual capabilities in pursuing the
goals they seek. They are clearly not the junior varsity
or second-string team some have characterized them as
being, either intellectually or in their ability to shrewdly wage psychological as well as physical war with the
limited resources they have.
Though IS adherents subscribe to a return to a seventh-century set of values that condones slavery; brutalization of captives; exotic punishments for reputed crimes;
domination, exploitation, and rape of women and children; and forced subjection of nonbelievers of their brand
of the Islamic faith, they are not stupid. Quite the opposite, they are true believers who have shown both fanatical
zeal and commitment, as well as great skill and acumen
in manipulating world opinion and outmaneuvering their
enemies. Moreover, many IS adherents have shown a
willing—sometimes eager—inclination to die as martyrs
for their global mission. To highlight a sobering comparison, few Westerners are persuaded enough in the defense
of their own ideology and culture to willingly volunteer
as suicide bombers for their cause. In contrast, many IS
followers appear to be more than willing to do so.
As evidence of serious intent to cleanse the world of
non-Islamic power and influence, IS is systematically
destroying vitally needed property and infrastructure that
the fragile nation-states they are attacking need to survive,
including in many cases the cultural history of peaceful,
non-Islamic peoples living in those states. Consequently,
the ideological foundations of many nations striving to
achieve stability through tolerance of ethnic and religious
diversity are being undermined as IS schemes against them
to compel their subjugation to the IS caliphate. Taking all
this into consideration, we must also acknowledge and take
seriously the fanatical commitment of IS jihadists and their
serious and malevolent long-term intentions toward us.
Let’s face it: they want to win and believe they are.
Finally, we also have to recognize and counter the
intentions of the state and nonstate supporters who
are enabling growing violence against us. Defeating IS
will entail not only engaging IS directly—both through
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decisive force of arms and overwhelming information
operations attacking their values system—but also taking
dramatic steps to cut off the support they receive from a
host of players, including unfortunately, many of whom
are among those we nominally consider allies but who
are covertly supplying and supporting IS for their own
national or personal purposes. Taking such steps will
require not only diplomatic dexterity and sophisticated
cultural acumen, but also great courage and toughness in
the face of an entrenched bureaucratic mindset that prefers at present to rely on wishful thinking as a strategy.

War Only Ends in Victory—One Way
or the Other
In sum, we must face the fact that we are at war. It is
not something that can be ignored or wished away. And, in
war, winning is the only thing. The current war is no different. It is not a little kid’s soccer game where everyone gets
a trophy. As you read these words, people are being killed
and maimed on the multiple sides of this war. The misery
and suffering are intense, the injustices—already staggering
in number—continue to mount. It is consequently in our
best interests, and the interests of those who we may yet be
able to preclude from becoming innocent victims, that the
war be brought to an end as soon as possible, which means
we must decide to seriously wage war.
We must also face the fact that a long war works to the
advantage of IS. For the members of IS, the suffering of
people being enslaved, raped, tortured, or in a host of other
ways ruined, is irrelevant. The victims have no human
rights because human rights outside of IS doctrine do
not exist. IS only has one aim: to conquer and compel all
people to accept their conception of a fundamentalist and
much radicalized Islamic lifestyle, or die. Thus, time has no
meaning for IS. Unless directly confronted, attacked, and
decisively defeated, left to their own timeline, it matters
not when the caliphate comes or how long it takes to get
there, only that it does.
When we win against IS, it will be our right and prerogative to argue philosophically all day long about the how
and the why of the war, mistakes made by military leaders
and politicians, and, hopefully, lessons learned leading
to successes. But, if we lose—which we must prudently
recognize as a real possibility if we don’t take decisive action
before an IS becomes an established reality—we will lose
both the right and ability to argue. I say let’s stop participating in this never-ending conflict and instead, let’s win!
March-April 2016  MILITARY REVIEW