A threat as long as not tackled head on

According to US Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the US Homeland Security Committee, the US has recently heightened the level of alertness against homegrown terrorism, especially targeting US military bases and installations.

In an interview with CNN aired Sunday, Johnson suggested that there are scores of Daesh sympathisers or supporters, perhaps over 1,000, on US soil and the number is increasing steadily.

If this is indeed the case, it can only mean that Daesh is recruiting followers in the US, as it is elsewhere in the Western world, through social media, indoctrinating them and then deploying them on battlefields.

Johnson also suggested that only by defeating Daesh in Iraq and Syria the US can defend itself.

It is a suggestion that stands to reason, but if Daesh’s defeat is not happening, it is because the US’ and its allies’ efforts to defeat this terrorist group are still half hearted.

His Majesty King Abdullah has repeatedly warned that Daesh must be dealt a decisive blow by increasing the current military strike.

At the same time, the military solution should go in parallel with efforts to address the ideological dimension, as this group’s indoctrination is based on a false interpretation of Islam.

The military strikes have not made a significant dent, and now analysts say that it is going to take a long time to defeat Daesh, even with a dramatic increase in the number of ground troops.

To break the constant Daesh recruitment of sympathisers and supporters, and their intervention in the armed conflict, there is need for decisive military, economic and political interventions.

Adding to the complexity of the situation and stymieing the efforts against Daesh is the fact that former Baath military officers in Iraq are lending their know-how and political support, giving Daesh a Sunni-Baath cloak that contributes to its winning of popular support.

This can only make the fight against Daesh a protracted affair, a discouraging thought, indeed.

A mystifying question is why countries with good surveillance, that get to know what people are recruited by evil-doer Daesh, do not take action on their own soils.

Sure they must have laws that justify putting terrorists away for long times. Why allow them to join death squads and recruit more gullible young people?