It is clear that the US efforts to defeat Daesh (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) have been inadequate. Half-measures will not work against a growing threat from radical Islamists that are uniting fractured terrorist groups around the world under one banner. Over the past six months, as the Obama administration has continued to develop its strategy for defeating the group, US enemies have not been standing still. Daesh now reaches from North Africa through the Middle East, Pakistan and South Asia and into Southeast Asia. Libya, with its absence of government control and its vast stocks of weapons, has become a particularly deadly terrorist haven that is allowing Daesh to broaden its map, gain strength and plot attacks against Europe and the US.
Last week, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee debated an authorisation to use military force against Daesh. But instead of giving the president what he needs to win this struggle, many in the Senate seem more focused on telling him what he should not do. They argue that the US needs to place conditions on the types of force that can be used or impose a timeline by which victory must be achieved. Yet the threat is growing by the day. Beyond the Americans who have already been brutally slaughtered at its members’ hands, Daesh is actively developing its ability to target civilians in “lone wolf” attacks in Europe and the US. Its continued spread across the Middle East is alarming. It is imperative that the US and its European and Arab partners join together to stop this threat before it advances farther.
Ungoverned spaces exploited
While the current front lines are in Iraq and Syria, Daesh is exploiting vast, ungoverned spaces in Libya and elsewhere in North Africa to conduct training, add to its ranks and unite sympathetic, disparate terrorist groups under its flag. Once Daesh establishes control of a city or territory, such as in Darnah, Libya, it declares it part of its caliphate and then establishes an Islamic court, police force and governing administration. It frequently holds public forums at which the local populace is expected to pledge support for the group and volunteer to travel to Syria to fight. Local groups who align with Daesh soon adopt its savagery and begin beheadings and other barbaric acts to prove their allegiance. Despite all of the coalition conferences and rhetoric from US officials, significant gaps remain in the administration’s strategy. For instance, any successful effort against Daesh must include a plan for removing Syrian dictator Bashar Al Assad from power. The US can no longer afford to allow the Syrian regime to benefit from strikes against Daesh. So far its actions in Syria have undermined its credibility with the very people it will need to empower in a post-Al Assad Syria.
The US and coalition partners should move quickly to implement a safe zone along the border with Turkey and begin to enforce a no-fly zone for Al Assad’s air force in parts of the country. It must also increase its efforts to tackle the unrest in Libya before a vacuum becomes entrenched there, as has happened in Syria, and the range of our options narrows. To this end, the US must expand counterterrorism operations in areas where Daesh is growing or establishing a foothold. Additionally, the US military should increase capacity-building and training efforts for willing governments that need our support. Not adequately supporting the nascent Libyan government following the 2011 removal of Muammar Gaddafi was a key failure of the Obama administration.
The next defence secretary will need to press the US military to design and implement a winning strategy against Daesh while leaning hard on its partners in Europe and the Middle East to commit more forces to this fight. The US must move quickly to exert more pressure on Al Assad or risk fracturing the coalition as its partners grow weary of the slow, tepid US response.
These are the issues the US should be debating, not when the war will end or what types of force can be used to win it. It’s time for members of Congress to ensure that the president has the flexibility and authority he needs to keep America safe, not to further tie his hands. The ultimate success of this battle and the safety and security of Americans are at stake.
—Washington Post
Marco Rubio, a Republican, represents Florida in the Senate, where he is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and the Select Committee on Intelligence.
