Special to WorldTribune.com
U.S. President Barack Obama’s new strategy to defeat Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) is to win with ideas instead of guns.
During a summit with world leaders at the United Nations, Obama claimed that “military pressure” will not force ISIL to back down and that the war of ideas was the key.
“This means defeating their ideology,” Obama said. “Ideologies are not defeated with guns. They are defeated by better ideas — a more attractive and compelling vision.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the summit that ideas alone are not enough to defeat the terrorist organization that has run roughshod over Syria and Iraq.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius criticized Putin, claiming that Russia has not succeeded in defeating ISIL with force any more than the U.S. has succeeded peacefully.
“They talk about fighting [ISIL], but I haven’t seen anything,” he said.
On Sept. 30, Putin did something. Russia launched its first air strikes against ISIL targets in Syria. The strikes targeted ISIL military equipment, communications centers, vehicles and ammunition, according to Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov.
Putin, in a speech on Sept. 28, criticized U.S. attempts to use democracy as a tool against unrest in the Middle East and added that Obama’s efforts against ISIL have largely failed.
Obama admitted that ISIL has “shown themselves resilient. They have been able to attract adherents … in many of our own countries… We have [ISIL] taking root in areas that already are suffering from failed governance. And as a consequence of the vacuum that exists in many of these areas, [ISIL] has been able to dig in.”
“This is not a conventional battle,” Obama added. “This is a long-term campaign — not only against this particular network, but against its ideology… Like terrorists and tyrants throughout history, [ISIL] will eventually lose because it has nothing to offer but suffering and death.”
The U.S. State Department said the U.S.-lead coalition has failed in combating ISIL’s ideas, because the terrorist group is much quicker at producing social media propaganda than the U.S. is at silencing it.
Obama calls for defeating ISIL with ‘better ideas’; Putin disagrees, launches air strikes added by World Tribune on
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