Interviewed on CNN today, retired Gen. John Allen, recently replaced as the US Special Envoy to the war against ISIS, offered an extremely pessimistic assessment of the war, saying that the US needs to address the causes of “symptoms” like ISIS and al-Qaeda, and failing that will be “condemned to fight forever.”
Historically, the US hasn’t been particularly good at even identifying the causes of insurgencies against US-backed governments, let alone making any credible efforts to address those problems. Notably, Gen. Allen didn’t make any real effort to identify the causes he thought the US needs to address either.
Rather, Allen simply insisted that the locals “understand the region better” and that the US should “work closely with them” to resolve the underlying conditions which are fueling growing recruitment to such Islamist factions.
Gen. Allen informed the administration of his intention to resign back in September, citing growing frustration with the administration’s policies in the war, and in particularly in not following through on escalations of the conflict. He’d been warning that he believed the war would last “a generation or more” since last summer.
Allen did mention that he thinks the US should “consider” a no-fly zone in Syria, but conceded that the cost in resources of such a move might be too much to ultimately carry out. The State Department has recently indicated such considerations are off the table because of the cost.
Despite recently resigning and being replaced by Brett McGurk, Gen. Allen said he wouldn’t rule out returning to a government position like Secretary of Defense in the future, saying he’s always willing to “come off the bench if they need the help.”
"The State Department has recently indicated such considerations are off the table because of the cost."
It's off the table because the Russians have made damned sure that it won't happen. For good reason.
A no-fly zone would merely keep Putin from bogging himself down in the kind of endless war the general is referring to. Nobody but Putin would benefit from such a zone.
That's opposite to the reality. What Russia and the SAA are doing now is preventing a US sponsored Turkish invasion.
The rightwing warmongers keep echoing the same rhetoric:
"A no-fly zone over Syria."
Look like I miss the hand over ceremony of F16 jet fighters
to ISIS.
Don't forget to add Hilliary into that category, because she's for it too.
Hillary is and has always been "for" almost any war, no less than McCrazy. She is as bad as any neocon, and shares responsibility for some of our worst decisions, such as Libya, Syria, and Ukraine, and remaining in Afghanistan.
This of course is what the US regime wants.
Forever? It sounds as though the Generall is young and romantic. "I'll love you forever" then hop, divorce is in the air.
Phisst General, never say forever…nohing lasts forever, we are just momentary actors on the stage…and it would seel often sleepwalking.
ISIS and al-Qaeda are the inventions of this corrupt USG regime. The
New World Order want (us) masses to believe that these (evil) forces
can only be eliminated through perpetual war and destruction.
As an example, the NWO uses the NFL to spread its BS propaganda.
A well known announcer in a prime time game boasted he appreciated
how (our) troops were keeping (us) safe from the (terrorists).
The USG doesn't give a damn about (us) masses. Over 3,000 humans
were slaughtered in 9/11 – which was staged by the Zionist/CIA, and
included scum like Cheney and Wolfowitz. Bin-Laden was a scapegoat.
Today, bogus legislation like the Patriot Act, which Congress keeps
voting to extend, is suppose to keep (us) safe from the bad guys.
The 'real' bad guys are in DC.
I agree
”The curse causeless has not come.”
In short, every curse has a root cause and not until the public reach agreement on the cause, can there ever be a solution.
Words like forever, always, never, nothing or everything — just reveal the limitation of mind. Human actions are not laws of physics, and cannot withstand the scrutiny of any testing.
What the general IS saying is the following. We have no clue what we are doing. We should ask natives. But beware of that advice as well. Do we know how to pick and chose the natives we should believe? All of our action against ISIS so far have been pin pricks. On purpose or not — they have been a joke. At such rate — sure, it will last forever and a day. Russia is going after storage of munitions, transportation, arms, telecom, supply routes. This is why ISIS is keen on harming Russia, not US. Heck, the way it looks like — we are currently in alliance with ISIS, and against Russia.
Senator Graham is so incensed over Russia's hitting "the good guys" , the ones "we trained" that is recommending bringing down Russian planes! Good, that is what ISIS would be happy to hear. What "good guys, Mr. Senator? Pin point ONE place on the map of Syria, just one village, or a rock, where your "good guys" are — and you will find out easily, by doing basic search, what kind of atrocities have been committed against civilians by those same "good guys".
So, while the US is going after the "Jihad John", it is up to Russians to go after ISIS.
How about not destroying a country by trashing their institutions, from the government to the postal service and drivers licenses — and let the evolution of each society take care of its progress, or occasional regress. If we minded our own business — today we would have a thriving economy, the largest one on earth, that nobody could have touched. We could have had the most advanced urban environments, transportation systems, space program. Instead, we followed the lead of neocons, and under their insatiable need for pinning a flag on various global conquests, we ruined ourselves. But we still follow — instead of just firing them or demoting them, or prohibiting their access to any federal building — we just keep on sleep walking, and assuming that the mess we created for ourselves is the "climate change" we talk incessantly about
He sounds like an idiot.
He's an "elite" idiot, if you please.
And such are running/ruining the country. Isn't he the one who while at CENTCOM, Florida, got entangled with a socialite, a dentist's wife, with whom he exchanged hundreds of e-mails. She was the one who outed the affair between Petreaus and a writer working with him. As the mess was getting bigger, especially because of the murky national origin of the woman, General was not appointed to the Supreme Commander, NATO. I hope I have not mixed him up with somebody else.
nope, you got it right.
I would have thought that, on a site like this, a guy arguing that a war was unwinnable and would have to be ended by negotiations would be cheered loudly! Instead, he's called an idiot. One wonders what cause this, and other bloggers further up, are actually defending.
You would have thought wrong, because endless wars are what the intent is. That way the military industrial complex just keeps humming along. "So many enemies, so few weapons."
He's not advocating negotiations. He thinks we should work with the "locals," meaning Turkey, KSA and Qatar.
That's MISTER Idiot to you, buddy.
The main "symptom" is our support of Israel.
This is common sense. State parties always lose wars against insurgents. Sooner or later, ISIS will have to be negotiated with. The British spent 30 years fighting the IRA and brought the fighting to an end only by capitulating on everything except formal independence. Marine officers always seem to be much more lucid as to what the military can and cannot do that officers of other services.
Gen Allen is correct that ISIS is symptom rather than cause. He is right that such an insurgency as symptom cannot be defeated, short of genocide anyway. No matter how many are killed, more will come. They actually gain from the process of loss and replacement, as a form of evolution.
He's not really suggesting here that we fight forever. Even if we would and could, the symptom would evolve until it defeated us.
This is a chronic disease that will kill unless cured, and the Long War is only palliative care, not cure.
It would be career-ending for a general to say what the chronic disease is, at least in public. It is our own policies, and our own politics. We have overwhelming power, and we've used it foolishly to do this.
How anyone can ever be SO WRONG!
Assholes like General Allen are the greatest threat facing the United States and the American people, not to mention the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which mean nothing to these sick warmongering animals!
General Allen thinks the American people are so stupid and don't know that all of ISIS weaponry says Made In The USA.
Dear General Allen, please tell us what the difference is between a terrorist, a rebel, a freedom fighter, a revolutionary, an extremist or an insurrectionist? Can't they all be described as the same person when they use criminal acts of violence to challenge and overthrow the ruling authority of a people? The labels are different but the deeds all have a common purpose; use the fear of death to force other people against their will to serve their agenda. They are not armies of a government per se but a gang of criminals.
The idea that terrorists in the Middle East will come in mass to North America is folly. They have no deep water surface or submarine navy, no air force, no ICBM missiles at their fingertips. They are at best an organized light infantry restricted to the foreign regions in which they thrive; they cannot get to America. The vulnerability of the nation is at our northern and southern borders and the territorial waters surrounding the continent. That's where force protection should be deployed, not wasted in the sands of the Levant and Western Asia.
The U.S. military failed their primary mission to protect the country on September 11, 2001. Whoever was in charge in the Pentagon should have been fired or criminally prosecuted. That was never done because powerful men in Washington wanted an excuse to spread the seeds of war. There can be no other explanation and it still is the plan today as we witness in Eastern Ukraine, Syria and soon, Southeast Asia.
One more idiot puts in his 2 cents.
If the US were (pretending) to fight ISIS on their own, that would certainly be true. Fortunately, the Russians, Shias and Kurds really are fighting ISIS, so their days are numbered.
"We've always been at war with Eastasia"
November 13th, 2015 NY Times Rally—Friday the 13th; Drone Papers Coverup
In June of 1971, the New York Times had the courage to initiate the publishing of Daniel Ellsburg's "Pentagon Papers." This brave action against the will of a criminal executive branch, combined with the principled decision by then-Senator Mike Gravel (AK) to release 4,100 pages of the Pentagon Papers into the Senate Record, helped spark a fight that led to the end of the criminal presidency of Richard NIxon and was instrumental in bringing the Indochina War to an end. The Papers documented that the war was being lost, not won, and that McNamara's "body count" metric was fraudulent and criminal.
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/20…
be “condemned to fight forever.”
"Please don't throw me in that brier patch
War is Peace
Rather, Allen simply insisted that the locals “understand the region better” and that the US should “work closely with them” to resolve the underlying conditions which are fueling growing recruitment to such Islamist factions.
Well that would be a first for the Exceptionalist Nation…and thus wont be contemplated. Bomb$ away!
Enough of the pessimism.
The judgment of top US military brass that America confronts an enemy it is “condemned to fight forever” is extremely optimistic–to those who control the machine that makes the war, if not those who pay for and serve as fodder for it.