U.S. Seeks to Avoid Ground War Welcomed by Islamic State – The New York Times
“I have said it repeatedly: Because of these prophecies, going in on the ground would be the worst trap to fall into. They want troops on the ground. Because they have already envisioned it,” said Jean-Pierre Filiu, a professor of Middle East Studies at Sciences Po in Paris, and the author of “Apocalypse in Islam,” one of the main scholarly texts exploring the scripture that the militants base their ideology on.
“It’s a very powerful and emotional narrative. It gives the potential recruit and the actual fighters the feeling that not only are they part of the elite, they are also part of the final battle.”
via U.S. Seeks to Avoid Ground War Welcomed by Islamic State – The New York Times.
This is the problem with invasion that Trump and the Republicans are ignoring: The Islamists want us to invade Iraq and Syria so they can engage us in “the final battle.”
We cannot win by doing what they want us to do.
Conrad Theodore Seitz 