YOU CAN PAY ME NOW OR YOU CAN PAY ME LATER

This will appear in the Farmerville Gazette, Farmerville, Louisiana, USA week of 11/17/2014

“You can pay me now or you can pay me later”. The meaning of this saying is quite simple, you can pay me today or you can pay later but you are going to pay. Problem is that if you pay later you will have to accept the consequences of delay. Nothing is more apparent of this than the hoard of barbarians killing it’s way across Iraq and Syria, ISIS, and how we face this threat to world peace.
Standing back and observing ISIS pragmatically, without consideration to the atrocities and removing all emotion from the observation; I am amazed in the organizational ability of the fledgling upstart terrorist nation. Our national leaders underestimated ISIS when referring to it as a JV team. That is one mistake that will not be made again. Let us hope that we do not make other tactical errors when dealing with this major threat.
ISIS has moved out of Syria and engulfed much of Iraq. They have lodged a war of terror with their brutal atrocities; a method that left many Iraqi military members quaking and fleeing from ISIS without firing a shot. This left a large amount of military equipment for ISIS to simple pick up. Much of this was provided by U.S. tax dollars for the new Iraqi army. ISIS is not just a rag tagged army of young untrained men walking out of the desert to join a new movement. That is apparent to anyone that has studied military history. You do not overextend your supply lines. Also, a successful army must be able to maintain its’ equipment.
When ISIS first over ran some Iraqi bases they captured army tanks. These are American made tanks and are some of the best in the world. I watched as an ISIS driver did doughnuts in one of the newly captured weapons. While it was somewhat impressive that one of the terrorist had the ability to perform this feat I also thought that it was just a matter of time before the tank would be unserviceable due to lack of maintenance. It takes more than a back yard mechanic to keep one of these monsters running. That was months ago and the tanks are still being seen. This shows a level of support that is afforded a well organized and trained army. A question for future discussion is where this training is coming from.
An effective army does not over run its’ supply lines. The blitzkrieg advances of Germany in World War II was well supplied from the rear as it advanced and quickly overran country after country in Europe. Patton understood this as he was halted in his quick advances as he waited for supplies to catch up. ISIS was not hampered by supplies in the way that a rag tagged army would have been. The command and control of the ISIS army is very well managed and organized. This also discloses a high level of communication that allows command and control to take place between various supporting units. Again, where is this level of training coming from?
Recently it was reported that ISIS is making agreements with other terrorist organizations. This elevates ISIS to a new level of organization that makes it even more dangerous; diplomacy and mergers. They has reached an agreement with a terrorist group in Egypt to form an alliance. An action such as this moves ISIS to be far more than a formable army. ISIS is now establishing treaties much as true governments do only this time the treaties are between terrorist organizations. Once again it has to be asked, where is this level of leadership and knowledge coming from? There must be some mentoring coming from sources that are also bankrolling this hideous organization.
ISIS is a formable fighting force. Are they a threat to armies from the West? Today no but if unchecked they soon will be. Hamas, a terrorist group that is determined to destroy Israel, is in support of ISIS. If they join forces the combined force would number over forty thousand soldiers. This is no small force and with ISIS leadership and training this army could truly take on a smaller countries army.
As much as the thought to sending our young men and women into harm’s way, it is becoming more apparent that this is going to be the only way to kill the beast. ISIS is like a large python. Marginal air strikes is like shooting him with a BB gun. It will irritate him but will not stop him. It is going to take a man with a machete to cut off the head. If we wait ISIS will only grow stronger and it will be harder to decapitate it. You can pay me now or you can pay me later.