Should the United States Put Boots on the Ground to Fight ISIS?

The Lawfare Podcast

The Lawfare Institute

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4.7 • 6.4K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2015

⏱️ 95 minutes

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Summary

Last week, Brookings convened three policy experts, Michael Doran of the Hudson Institute, Brookings fellows Michael O’Hanlon and Jeremy Sharpiro, as well as Senator Chris Murphy for the first ever Brookings Debate. The question at hand? Should the United States put boots on the ground to fight ISIS?

As the ground continues to advance against Iraqi security forces, is ISIS a threat to the region, the U.S. and the world? Or is it a distraction from other, much more important strategic interests? How should the U.S. proceed in its effort to degrade and defeat ISIS? And, if there is a Sarah Palin doctrine, is the Obama administration following it?

Bloomberg journalist Indira Lakshmanan moderated the debate, while Brookings Executive Vice President Martin Indyk provided opening remarks.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast contains advertising.
0:04.0	To access an ad-free version of the LawFair podcast,
0:08.0	become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair.
0:14.0	That's patreon.com slash law fair.
0:18.0	Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings,
0:22.0	rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath.
0:29.0	If we're not willing to take military action in order to improve the situation on the ground,
0:37.0	then that means we don't have vital interests that we really care about.
0:42.0	Or it means that somehow we think that if we don't take action,
0:46.0	that events are going to just sort themselves out in some way,
0:50.0	that is amenable to our interests.
0:53.0	And President Obama himself has suggested that this is the case,
0:56.0	and some of his top officials have suggested, that sooner or later,
1:00.0	the Middle East is going to reach an equilibrium.
1:04.0	The Saudis and the Iranians are going to cancel each other out, his Bala and Al-Qaeda are going to cancel each other out.
1:10.0	The ISIS and the Iraqi state are going to cancel each other out.
1:16.0	But clearly, that is also false, and we can see it.
1:19.0	Since 2011, the situation has gone bad to worse.
1:23.0	With repercussions that I think everybody in this room is familiar with,
1:27.0	we've got 250,000 dead in Syria.
1:29.0	We have half the population uprooted, those refugee camps are going to be hotbeds of extremism.
1:35.0	I'm Cody Poplin, and this is the Law Fair Podcast July 4, 2015.
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