Is It Really That Dumb?

At a recent rally in Greenville, North Carolina, Trump said that on day one of his presidency, he would convene his top generals and give what he called a "simple instruction" to prepare a report with "a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS." which would be submitted to the Oval Office within 30 days. 
To which CNN (naturally) ran a segment interviewing Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, on the Anderson Cooper show, where he said, "I had to ask myself, what the hell does he think we've been trying to do for the last 14 years in terms of al Qaeda?"

The general continued on and said, "he should take a look at other countries at how they fought terrorism [...] including Israel and learn a thing or two"...

Well with all due respect to the Lt. General and his long years of service. I would like to point out that there has not been any advances in defeat of elements of terrorism in Israel, or in any other part of the world for that matter. Last I heard, people in israel, and elsewhere, are getting killed by terrorist attacks on a regular, almost daily, basis. Furthermore, according to many experts on the matter, this is precisely because the current setup of the rules of engagement prevents countries like Israel from doing what really needs to be done - I.E. total annihilation.

Hate to be the one to say this, but Anderson Cooper is in fact right to ask about this point becasue it is more true then it is not. Western countries (and most importantly the United States & Israel) are constantly hindered by these so called humanitarian edicts, which in practice hold them back from doing what they need to do without worrying about the consequences of their actions, Benghazi is just one example - go watch 13 hours, you will get my drift... 

Adding a bit of a personal perspective. I have a brother serving at the IDF in a special commando unit and he has told me on several occasions in a very direct matter "while we have the ability to defeat terrorism, we are more often then not held back from doing so". And frankly I have to agree with him.

While thinking such talk is but a false narrative, Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling is ignoring the boots on the ground who got him the stars on his shoulders in the first place. Additionally, it does nothing but makes it that he can sleep better at night and have an easier retirement... 

Lets face it, ISIS is not being defeated on a international scale, while there have been some advances, their actual influence is spreading at a rapid way with no end in sight. 

Lt. General, the ISIS (and frankly all Islamic extremism for that matter) are not a regular military conquest where "advancements are made". 

Rather, it is time we understand that ISIS is more then just a terrorist group but a religion based threat that we clearly do not understand....

So the way I see it, we indeed could use a 30 day pause to conduct a reassessment of our overall ISIS defeating strategies.

You can see the video here: