What’s It Going to Take to Defeat ISIS in the Middle East?
“The Bombings Help,” Admits O’Neill, “But It’s Not a Military Solution.”
Despite the horror of the Bastille Day attack in Nice, France that killed at least 84 people and injured more than 200 others, it seems there’s a growing acceptance that living with this kind of terror will likely be the new normal.
Others, including former Navy SEAL Robert O’Neill, refuse to accept that scenario. Ever convinced that the enemy can be defeated, given the right counterattack strategy, Rob shared his views on winning the war on terror with host Maria Bartiromo, former Navy commander and fellow FOX News contributor, Steve Rogers, among others in a recent FOX Business News appearance.
Rogers: “In reference to a military action against ISIS in the Mid East, what would it take other than the bombings? How many troops should go in?”
O’Neill: “The bombings help, and they’re helping our allies on the ground…the mainly Shia armies, the Iraqis and the Kurds, but we’re going to need to get boots on the ground. It’s not going to be a military solution to defeat this. It needs to be military action to take out the capital in Raqqa. You need to take out what they see as the divine prophecy. They’re looking for the holocaust, the end of times, and they’re serious. We’re going to need American leadership first, American troops on the ground, hopefully with some of our coalition partners, and then we need our friends in the Middle East, some of the other countries to help out as well. We’re going to need Sunnis on the ground, too.”
Bartiromo: “Why haven’t we done that? Why haven’t we gone in? The president has said we don’t want to go in with more troops on the ground because we don’t want to hurt civilians.”
O’Neill: “Nobody wants to hurt civilians. Right now there’s modern-day sex slavery going on and then other slavery which is probably just as bad. There’s genocide going on. And they’re killing civilians every day. We’re very, very good about avoiding collateral damage, but sometimes that’s what happens. They’re going to use the human shields. We need to play a better PR campaign when we do hit them. People need to realize they’re putting women and children in front of the bomb factories where they’re making improvised explosive devices. But the bombing alone is not going to do it. We need to get people in there and secure it.”