David Kilcullen, from The Weekend Australian 13-14 February 2016, where the title is “Already Weary of the long war that we are not winning” … and where Kilcullen clarifies the spread-effects of the Bush administration’s disastrous intervention in Iraq and its efforts to “spread democracy at the barrel of a gun” (in Maajid Nawaz’s words) reaching a point “when there is no drawbridge NOW” — Editorial Comment
As I write, Western countries (several, particularly the US, now with severely reduced international credibility) face a larger, more unified, capable, experienced and savage enemy, in a less stable, more fragmented region, with a far higher level of geopolitical competition, and a much more severe risk of great-power conflict, than at any time since 9/11. It isn’t just Islamic State; al-Qa’ida has emerged from its eclipse and is back in the game in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Syria, Somalia and Yemen. We’re dealing with not one but two global terrorist organisations, each with regional branches, plus a vastly larger radicalised population at home, and a flow of foreign terrorist fighters 10 to 12 times the size of anything seen before. Likewise, last year’s Taliban resurgence shows that as bad as things seem now, they can get much worse if the Afghan drawdown creates the same opportunity for Islamic State next year as the Iraqi drawdown did in 2012.
Kilcullen —en.wikipedia.org Continue reading →
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