It will take 3 years to destroy ISIS, U.S. officials estimate.

[diddle]

The U.S. is planning a campaign against ISIS that may take as many as three years of sustained effort to complete, including attacking the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s redoubt in Syria, according to senior officials in the Obama administration. The first phase, which is focused on airstrikes, is already underway. The second phase, which won’t begin until Iraq forms a more inclusive government, will involve intensive training and equipment outfitting of Kurdish fighters, Iraqi military, and possibly Sunni tribes. The third phase will be destroying ISIS sanctuary in Syria. Obama has recently faced criticism from both parties for not having a strong plan to combat ISIS. On Sunday, President Obama told Meet the Press that his plan for ISIS is “not the equivalent of the Iraq War” in which 100,000 troops would be deployed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/08/wo...=tw-share&_r=2

Not really surprising given how established they are at this point. I'm just trying to decide whether this was a realistic, optimistic, or pessimistic assessment.

[grandpab]

Bombs take 3 years to explode?

[Stop Pretending]

Isis will never be destroyed. All ISIS is, is a younger version of the Taliban. The Taliban is losing popularity among the younger people because they feel the Taliban has lost is focus, and have gone weak. ISIS is just the Taliban on roids, and will never go away.

[Kujako]

Will we be greeted as liberators? Will it pay for itself? Will we be done in six months?

[Masark]

Bombs take 3 years to explode?

No, but it takes 3 years to drop enough of them and follow up with (Iraqi) infantrymen with rifles.

[Deleted]

More tactic without strategy.

[Wildtree]

This will not end up well..... and the three years is overly optimistic.. Make it more like 10 yrs..

[MetroStratics]

Nice, I imagined it would take about 3 years. Hopefully its nearly finished by the next time there is a WoW expansion beta.

[Canpinter]

can we just build a force field around north america and Europe?

[Queen of Hamsters]

Saw a documentary from the victims of their reign of terror...makes me wish we could hire Dr. Manhattan to help us deal with this shit...

[Raeph]

No, but it takes 3 years to drop enough of them and follow up with (Iraqi) infantrymen with rifles.

Kurdish militia seem to be more effective than Iraqi military.

Reminds me of the three state solution that they were discussing in 2006-2008 for Iraq. http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articl...-Could-it-Work

[The One Percent]

And it will take three months for a splinter group to rise up and take their place.

[Steelangel]

It doesn't take 3 years to destroy a puritanical, zealous Islamic ideology which has been around in some form since the time of the Kharijites--1300 years ago, and resurrected a hundred years ago to help the Saud family conquer Mecca.

[Spectral]

I wager that the Crusaders had a nice, neat plan to destroy the Islamic states that they wanted to destroy too. Didn't seem all that effective in the long run though.

[theostrichsays]

I hope it takes less time, as someone who spent over 3 years boots on ground as Infantry... I personally doubt they will manage to be anywhere near that time frame.
Just a little question though to our EU posters, does your country cover ISIS or view them as a threat of any sort, and if they do what country? I have few guildies who are across the ocean for various reasons, and in the few conversations we had none of them said they really heard much about it outside the internet, (but once again they were there on work/vacation not actual citizens.)

[Raeph]

I wager that the Crusaders had a nice, neat plan to destroy the Islamic states that they wanted to destroy too. Didn't seem all that effective in the long run though.

Doesn't quite parallel.

Crusades - Ignorant religious fundamentalists, backed by rich nobility wanting more wealth, attacking a somewhat pluralistic state, that stabilized after the fall of the Roman empire.

Current international anti-terrorism activity - Global community, tired of the genocidal atrocities, against multiple religious and ethic minorities are mounting a multi-pronged, multi-faceted attack against an ignorant religious fundamentalist group(s) who's calling card is killing unarmed prisoners and posting it on social media sites as an act of psychological terror.

[Littleraven]

Bombs take 3 years to explode?

In DBZ they do.........

[Graeham]

Just a little question though to our EU posters, does your country cover ISIS or view them as a threat of any sort, and if they do what country?

It's being covered fairly often here in England. Though this is the same country where for some reason ISIS members and sympathisers are able to post racist hate speech on Twitter but an innocent joke posted at the expense of a minority can result in a regular British citizen getting into a lot of trouble.

[Spectral]

Doesn't quite parallel.

Crusades - Ignorant religious fundamentalists, backed by rich nobility wanting more wealth, attacking a somewhat pluralistic state, that stabilized after the fall of the Roman empire.

Current international anti-terrorism activity - Global community, tired of the genocidal atrocities, against multiple religious and ethic minorities are mounting a multi-pronged, multi-faceted attack against an ignorant religious fundamentalist group(s) who's calling card is killing unarmed prisoners and posting it on social media sites as an act of psychological terror.

I'm confident that the Crusaders thought they were morally justified in killing people they viewed as barbarians too.

To be clear, I'm not actually drawing some absurd moral equivalence between civilized nations and ISIS, just pointing out that this isn't exactly the first time that a group of outsiders thought that they could make a productive go of taking out an Islamic empire. The end results just don't tend to be that stellar. I suspect this is because the whole ideology is poison and inevitably has a new head of the snake when you chop the old one off.

[ringpriest]

Crusades - Ignorant religious fundamentalists, backed by rich nobility wanting more wealth...

Sounds like the Republican party to me....