With 34 years of service in the CIA now behind me, I was recently asked how our ongoing war with ISIS will end. My answer that ‘either we will defeat them or they will defeat us’ struck some in the room, I am sure, as overly stark. I am, however, convinced we have no other choice but to destroy the enemy or we will continue to face his depredations. We can neither compromise with, nor turn away from, this enemy for the very simple reason that he will not allow it. His war aims are unlimited and all encompassing in that he will accept nothing less than the subjugation of our people and the destruction of our way of life. The butchers who wrought their havoc in San Bernadino will, alas, not be the last of their ilk we will see here in the homeland. The enemy is resolved to carry his war to our shores. This is not a choice between fighting them over there or over here. As ongoing FBI arrests of ISIS plotters and aspirants should indicate, we will have to do both to win. In that sense, the debate over whether we are at war is rather silly. To paraphrase Trotsky, we ‘may not be interested in war, but war is interested in’ us.
Our ISIS enemy is implacable and relentless. And he is dictating the pace and nature of this war. His centers of gravity are his false claim to represent all of Islam and the fearsome reputation he has for striking at the defenseless. That claim and that reputation are embodied in the territory he holds and the city, Raqqa, from which he “governs.” Left to his own devices, he will continue to use that territory as a platform from which to launch attacks against us and our allies. To defeat him, we must capture Raqqa and deny him that territory, taking with it ISIS’s capacity to wage war and its much-vaunted warrior repute amongst radicals in the Islamic world.
Faced with a similar challenge to the power of the Roman Empire, and the safety and security of its people, from an implacable Carthagian foe, the Roman senator and statesman, Cato the Elder (234–149 BC) ended each of his speeches with the admonition “Carthago delenda est” (“Carthage must be destroyed”). And so it was; the city’s capture serving as a lesson to all who would challenge Rome of its power and resolve. We should ensure that Raqqa meets a similar fate.
Some will argue that undertaking operations to crush the enemy in his lair is an over-reaction, akin to killing a fly with a howitzer. My answer is that fighting fair is not the goal of war. War is about victory. Whilst we should wage war in a manner that does the minimum possible collateral damage to innocent civilians, we ought not shy away from taking resolute action, even at the risk of such casualties, if it will serve to spare our warriors in battle and to save more innocent lives in the longer term both here at home and abroad. Beyond that, a war waged fiercely and victoriously over this barbaric and savage foe conveys its own message.
To those who ask why now, I say we must not delay, for war has its own, inexorable logic. As the course of our more than two decades long struggle with radical Islamic terror (dating at least back to the first World Trade Center attack) makes clear, the nature of the threat our enemies pose, be they Al-Qaeda, ISIS or other lesser Jihadi aspirants, will surely continue to evolve and metastasize over time if left unchecked. Moreover, history tells us that all radical movements, from the Jacobins to the Bolsheviks, become ever more dangerous and ruthless over time particularly as regards their voracious appetites for the blood of the innocent and defenseless. A limited strategy of seeking to contain or erode ISIS’s power and influence risks leaving ISIS (or a still more radical future off-shoot of ISIS) on the battlefield, and willing to use whatever means come into their hands, to include weapons of mass destruction or other infernal devices, to strike at us and our allies. We ought not wait around for that day.
Others will say that going after the enemy on his own territory plays into his hands, for this is just the sort of final battle the latter-day Mahdi leading ISIS has prophesized. This is nothing more than the sort of pre-fight bravado that will quickly crumble on the day of battle. If ISIS is willing to put its army on such a field, we ought to oblige them. I would wager that our people, lead by a “Scipio Africanus” of our own, would win that climactic battle, defeating our enemy in the manner of Zama.
Finally, taking the fight to the enemy where he purports to rule will also serve to demonstrate to those in Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran, who see the United States as weakened and in strategic retreat, that it still has the will to defend its interests and to lead the Free World. Our allies in the West and in the Islamic world are waiting for us. Our adversaries are watching, and exploiting our apparent irresolution. As Churchill famously said, “When the eagle is silent, the parrots will begin to jabber.” It is time to silence those nettlesome birds.
So, as we set forth our resolutions for the coming year, I have one to propose: Raqqa delenda est.
