PUBLISHED IN , ,

News Tip: Airstrikes 'Will Erode ISIS Fighting Power,' But Ground Forces Needed, Experts Say

The United States military and Arab allies have begun airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria.

By Duke Today Staff

Charlie Dunlap Jr.

  • Quote:"The air and missile strikes against ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq appear to have the robustness and simultaneity that marks a serious military air operation," says Duke University law professor Charlie Dunlap Jr., an expert on warfare policy and strategy. "The key now will be to sustain this level of effort over time. Airstrikes cannot be a 'drizzle' but need to be a constant downpour.""Persistent strikes will force ISIS fighters to constantly think about whether their next moment will be their last. Injecting a sense of fear and helplessness is what airstrikes can do, and that will erode ISIS fighting power.""Obama is proving himself to be a shrewd and bold commander-in-chief. Moreover, the orchestration of an Arab airpower coalition is a real triumph of statecraft, especially if it is in conjunction with other nonmilitary steps that the world community can take to battle ISIS."
  • Bio:Charlie Dunlap Jr. is a professor of the practice at Duke Law School and executive director of Duke's Center on Law, Ethics and National Security. He specializes in warfare policy and strategy, cyber-warfare, military commissions, counterinsurgency, nuclear issues and air power. Dunlap is a former deputy judge advocate general of the U.S. Air Force who retired from the military in 2010 as a major general.http://www.law.duke.edu/fac/dunlap

---David Schanzer

  • Quotes:"It makes sense to attack ISIS inside Syria and degrade its ability to organize forces and communicate. But this is the easy part," says David Schanzer, an associate professor of public policy at Duke University. "Meaningful ISIS targets are likely to be in short supply. Our airstrikes will weaken ISIS' capabilities, but effective ground forces will be needed to dislodge ISIS from territory it now controls. I do not see a candidate for this task on the horizon, especially inside Syria.""It is certainly possible that ISIS will up the ante by attempting to attack U.S. interests in the region or by motivating a homegrown attack inside the United States.  But this is part of ISIS' propaganda effort to establish primacy among extremist organizations and also to lure the United States deeper into this conflict. We should not take this bait.""For now, we should be content to degrade ISIS' capabilities and rely on intelligence and other security assets to protect American interests at home and abroad."
  • Bio:David Schanzer is a professor of the practice at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, and director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. He is an expert on counterterrorism and homeland security. From 2003-2005, Schanzer was a Democratic staff director for the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security.schanzer@duke.eduhttp://fds.duke.edu/db/Sanford/schanzer

                             

Contact: Steve Hartsoe
Affiliation: News & Communications
Phone: (919) 681-4515