The key findings of this first report are:
· Salafi-jihadi
military organizations, particularly ISIS and al Qaeda, are the greatest threat
to the security and values of American and European citizens. ISIS and al Qaeda pose an existential
threat because they accelerate the collapse of world order, provoke domestic
and global trends that endanger American values and way of life, and plan
direct attacks against the U.S. and its partners.
·
Syrian
al Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al Nusra poses one of the most significant long-term
threats of any Salafi-jihadi group. This al Qaeda affiliate has established an expansive
network of partnerships with local oppositions groups that have grown either
dependent on or fiercely loyal to the organization. Its defeat and destruction
must be one of the highest priorities of any strategy to defend the United
States and Europe from al Qaeda attacks.
·
ISIS
and al Qaeda are more than terrorist groups; they are insurgencies. They use terrorism as a tactic, but
these organizations are insurgencies that aim first to overthrow all existing
governments in the Muslim world and replace them with their own, and later, to
attack the West from a position of power to spread their ideology to all of
humanity. Separating the elements of ISIS and al Qaeda that are actively
working to attack the West from the main bodies of those groups fighting in the
Middle East, Africa, and South Asia is impossible. All al Qaeda groups and ISIS
affiliates seek to take the war into the West to fulfill their grand strategic
objective of establishing a global caliphate, albeit according to different
timelines.
· Current
counter-ISIS and –al Qaeda policies do not ensure the safety of the American
people or the homeland. The primary objective of the U.S. government remains protecting
the homeland and the American people, including safeguarding American values
both in the homeland and abroad. The activities of ISIS and al Qaeda interact
with the policies of Russia, Iran, and China to endanger the international
systems upon which American safety and freedom depend. Any strategy to counter
ISIS and al Qaeda will require coalition partners. However, there is no natural
coalition of states with common goals that can readily work together to resolve
this problem. The U.S. must lead its partners and ensure the continuation of
existing guarantors of international security such as NATO.
· American
and Western security requires the elimination of ISIS and al Qaeda regional
bases and safe-havens. Salafi-jihadi groups
independent of al Qaeda and ISIS form a base of support from which the enemy
draws strength and resilience. ISIS and al
Qaeda use the extensive safe haven and infrastructure of locally focused
Salafi-jihadi groups to help plan, train, and equip fighters for attacks
against the West. Destroying specific cells or nodes actively preparing attacks
against the West is not sufficient. Al Qaeda and ISIS will be able to
reconstitute the threat as long as Salafi-jihadi military organizations
continue to support them.
Source: http://www.understandingwar.org/
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