Syria Beckons Beyond Trump’s Red Line
James Kitfield, Yahoo News, April, 2017 There would be no long, anxious walks in the Rose Garden this time, no throwing the decision to Congress or fudging a red line that had been clearly…
Tag Archives: Syria
Donald Trump’s “Secret Plan” to Defeat ISIS
By James Kitfield, Originally published by Yahoo News on March 3, 2017 Dropping all his claims during the campaign that he had a secret and “foolproof” plan for defeating ISIS “quickly and effectively and having…
Iraq Envoy John Allen’s “Quiet Awakening” in Anbar
By James Kitfield Yahoo News, April 28, 2015 Not long ago, retired Marine Corps General John Allen was a pretty good argument for the wisdom of the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for.”…
Why Washington Should Declare War on ISIS
The terrorist group has a bigger sanctuary, far more money, and is more indiscriminately murderous than Al Qaeda was on September 10, 2001. BY JAMES KITFIELD August 20, 2014 When a centrist Democrat, a Republican…
In Exclusive Last Interview, Departing Military Intelligence Chief Warns of Growing Terrorist Threat
By JAMES KITFIELD, August 07, 2014 In this exclusive exit interview with Breaking Defense contributor James Kitfield, the outgoing chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, talks about metastasizing Islamic terrorism, his…
Can Another ‘Anbar Miracle’ Save Iraq?
By James Kitfield To defeat al-Qaeda’s most dangerous offspring and stave off another civil war, Iraq’s government hopes to repeat the “Anbar Miracle.” Also known as the “Sunni Awakening,” that rebellion of the Sunni tribes against…
Geneva II: Is It Always Better to ‘Jaw, Jaw’ than ‘War, War’?
Geneva II: Is it Always Better to “Jaw Jaw” than to “War War”? Winston Churchill’s adage is being sorely tested this week in Switzerland at the peace conference on Syria. To avoid the perverse outcome…
Five Steps to Save Iraq from Al Qaeda
By James Kitfield The unsettling news in recent days that Al Qaeda in Iraq (newly renamed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS) has captured the strategic crossroads town of Fallujah, Iraq, was…
Al Qaeda Carving Caliphate Out of Syria
Critics of the United States’ hands-off approach to Syria’s civil war have long warned that the costs of doing little to shape the conflict’s outcome would one day outweigh the risks of doing more. The…
Al Qaeda Strategy: Export Syria’s Civil War to the Wider Region
With the Obama administration now pushing talks to try and end Syria’s civil war as early as next month in Geneva, a major complicating factor is the black flag of Al Qaeda that now flies…