The Battle Against ISIS- Leon Panetta Predicts A 30 Year War

Like a metastasizing, aggressive cancer, the Islamic State (ISIS) is spreading. They've managed to take control of the eastern side of the Syrian border town of Kobani (aka Kobane), raising their black flag high atop a building and a hill for everyone to see. The same town where a young Kurdish fighter, Arin Mirkan, allegedly a commander in the Kurdish People's Protection Unit (YPG), blew herself up while fighting ISIS jihadists in the outskirts of Kobani. Trying to keep them from overtaking the mainly Kurdish town.

ISIS is gaining ground both in that region and globally, where more and more recruits are attempting to make their way to Syria and Iraq. Some are caught, we can only assume a bunch have already made their way there, or will, without being apprehended. Take Mohammed Hamzah Khan, 19, a Chicago kid who was planning on making the trek to Syria to join ISIS until he was caught at O'Hare International Airport this past Saturday. Maximum jail sentence would be 15 years. And remember this stupid Muslim convert, Military Explorer trained Shannon Maureen Conley, who was also trying to make the trek to Syria to join ISIS and her future Tunisian husband she met online, back in July of this year? Here is her uber-bizarre story.   Egypt just busted an ISIS recruiting cell over there. Indonesia is battling a problem with ISIS recruitment. And then you have France, Australia, England, in fact many European countries are represented in ISIS. They are everywhere, and it's going to be a huge problem.

And the West's air strikes against militants in Syria and Iraq don't seem to be of much help. In fact, Barack Obama's ex-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta predicts a 30 year war with ISIS, blaming Obama for not arming the moderates during Syria's version of the Arab Spring, way back when foreign fighters were not involved, and it was just a bunch of people yearning for democracy. And he's absolutely right,  I have said as much in the past.

Panetta told USA Today:

“I think we’re looking at kind of a 30-year war” that could extend to threats in Libya, Nigeria, Somalia and Yemen, Panetta told the newspaper.

Panetta, a respected policymaker who served under Obama, blamed the challenges on decisions the president made over the past three years.

Among those decisions, he cited Obama’s failure to push the Iraqi government hard enough to allow a residual U.S. force to stay in the country after troops withdrew in 2011, saying that created a security “vacuum.”

The former defense secretary also pointed to Obama’s rejection of advice in 2012 from Panetta and then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton to begin arming Syrian rebels fighting against President Bashar al-Assad.

“I do think we would be in a better position to kind of know whether or not there is some moderate element in the rebel forces that are confronting Assad,” Panetta said.

We're in this for the long haul, at least one can hope, since the alternative is far too hideous to contemplate.