The presidential candidates have collectively delivered a resounding political victory to ISIS, whom each of them focused on.
Following the debate was like listening to aspiring presidents who consider that the most important issue facing the United States of America is to "beat ISIS." They did not even realize that, by doing so, they were giving ISIS the golden keys to the kingdom: the ability to define our policies.
The war with ISIS is not a war: we keep using this word (not just in the United States by the way), and has become fashionable. The leading candidates used their loud rhetoric to explain what to do. Let me try to bring some wisdom to this deplorable show. If we act militarily, we will fail. We lost every single war against terrorists since the Vietnam war by using traditional military academy strategies.
ISIS has been created by the incompetent Bush administration who, by dismantling the Iraqi army, weakened their resistance and left on the field thousands of expert military officers who were Sunnis and prosecuted by a corrupt Bush-supported shiite administration led by Al-Malaki who was worse than Saddam Hussein.
ISIS does not deserve US boots on the ground, and for military glory, our Republican candidates all want to send thousands of U.S. troops to get killed in Syria and Iraq: have we not uselessly killed enough men and women in uniform? Don't we understand that it only satisfies our hubris, but is ineffective?
Arab countries will not be effective. Why do these candidates believe that (even with the new Saudi coalition) local Middle East forces will have the capability to eliminate ISIS on the ground while we will only do it from the sky? If they had any appetite for that, why did Arab countries not do it over the past five years? We know that Saudi Arabia was only active to destroy Yemen, at their border. They want the US to do the dirty job as we did in Iraq.
The cyber war against ISIS, that only Carly Fiorina understood and was barely given the time to explain, is absolutely critical. So is it against terrorists on U.S. soil. She is right that it should be a partnership with the private sector. That, unfortunately is not sufficient to make her a credible candidate but an anti-Hillary puppet.
ISIS is first and foremost a local problem: we have all reasons to support local forces but it is not a U.S. war: only the Republicans want to transform local conflicts into our ward and build military force. It is exactly what ISIS wants through the Paris and Colorado attacks. With all due respect, these tragedies are limited in scope. Without using one bullet, ISIS managed to win the political war by enrolling the Republican candidates as their enemy.
It was pathetic, absurd, uninformed and undignified of future Commanders in Chief who must protect US interests and limit the exposure of our men and women in uniform from unnecessary slaughter.