[Richard T. Eger]

Dear All,

A bit slightly off topic, but I think worthy of consideration is the following:

Bashir Asad of Syria, while generally considered in negative terms forcing through his bombing and ground campaigns many Syrians to flee the country, has one thing going for him - a small area of stability with an actual running government. He is supported by Russia and Iran.

But, now Russia has had its head also focused on ISIS. For different reasons, Iran is also focused on ISIS.

Russia is now bombing ISIS targets in Syria, a backlash to the downing of a Russian airliner in the Sinai.

Iran has a small, but effective, fighting group in Iraq and is having some success against ISIS. But, this success comes with a considerable risk to the Sunni population whose territory ISIS holds that they wish to take back - retribution on a very large scale.

The only other force of significance fighting ISIS in Iraq are the Kurds, which the U.S. is backing. There are Shiite militias from Baghdad that are also becoming somewhat effective but, like with the Iranians, this is likely to turn into a religious conflict within the Iraqi Muslim community, something the U.S. has desperately been trying to avoid, but with very little success to show for its efforts. Air power can do just so much and only boots on the ground can actually retake territory.

Okay, let's jump ahead and find ourselves a year or so from now having wiped out territorial ISIS. How did we do it? Well, let's assume that multiple armies from various countries making coordinated attacks does the job, much as was done in Iraq in the early 90's. With ISIS wiped out, we then have pieces of Al Qaeda to mop up in western Syria, which still leaves Asad in power. At least you'd have a stable government to start with.

But, who do you transition to? The "good" people have left for Europe. Lots of them. Get them back. How? Do what we did in WW II. Each of the coalition countries that took down ISIS and Al Qaeda would set up military zones of control. Once these established stability, Syrians that had fled to Europe would want to return home in droves, also help solving Europe's immigrant crisis. It literally would require a Marshall Plan. Yes, it took the fall of the Soviet Union to reunite Germany after decades of control and we might have to live with a mini-version of that.

As has been said: "You break it, you own it." Syria and Iraq are broken. Africa isn't much better. But the biggest problem right now is ISIS as the world is uniting against it. The above is a possible way toward repairing Syria and could serve as a benchmark as to how to deal with lesser terrorist organizations as well. In part, we'd be learning as we go. This time around, hopefully, we'll be smarter.

Regards,
Richard