“Boots on the Ground” the Only Way to Win

The Australian

18 November 2015

Rohan Gunaratna has urged a boots-on-the ground campaign to contain, isolate and eliminate the terror group. Until such a strategy is deployed in conflict zones, governments must sharply increase intelligence-sharing, he says.

‘’As long as IS controls territory in Iraq and Syria, recruits worldwide, including from Asia and Australia, will travel to fight,’’ the head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research said yesterday.

Without a ground campaign in Iraq, Syria, and Libya — countries where Western nations intervened to replace regimes — Islamic State networks and the rival al-Qa’ida-linked al-Nusra Front could not be dismantled. “No insurgency or terrorist campaign has ever been defeated without boots on the ground, ’’ he said.

It was inevitable copycats would follow the Paris template, and supporters in southeast Asia, including in Australia and New Zealand, have celebrated “the victory’’, he told The Australian.

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Last updated on 18/11/2015