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The ISIS Solution: How Unconventional Thinking and Special Operations Can Eliminate Radical Islam
The New York Times bestselling authors and former Special Operations veterans, Brandon Webb, Jack Murphy, and Peter Nealen details the dangers of ISIS and how America can stop the religious extremist threat at last
"It's too soon to say what steps the United States will take against ISIS. I don't want to put the cart before the horse," Obama told reporters during a White House news briefing. "We don't have a strategy yet.""-former President Obama
If we have been at war with terror for over a decade and still don't have solid strategies for dealing with radical terrorism, then what have we really been doing the last thirteen years? It's a good question to ask yourself, and at least the former President was telling the truth when he said we don't have a strategy for ISIS.
As ISIS grows in strength with each successful battle, they will also set up the infrastructure of something resembling a functional state. They will become a self-funded organization making millions of dollars from oil revenue. Left unchecked, it is hard to say how powerful they could become. The dream of a pan-Islamic caliphate is most certainly beyond their reach, however, they could carve out a very large swath of the Middle East for their empire. If ISIS were to capture the first and second most holy sites of the Islamic faith, Mecca and Medina, the entire Middle East may very well implode.
The ISIS Solution takes a look at the current geopolitical situation, organizational structure of ISIS, and provides new thinking and strategies for dealing with the Islamic State in the Middle East. Its authors and contributors have over fifty years of combined experience in the intelligence, analyst and Special Operations communities. Leadership and a new philosophical conversation of action is needed to eliminate violent terrorism. This book starts the conversation.
"It's too soon to say what steps the United States will take against ISIS. I don't want to put the cart before the horse," Obama told reporters during a White House news briefing. "We don't have a strategy yet.""-former President Obama
If we have been at war with terror for over a decade and still don't have solid strategies for dealing with radical terrorism, then what have we really been doing the last thirteen years? It's a good question to ask yourself, and at least the former President was telling the truth when he said we don't have a strategy for ISIS.
As ISIS grows in strength with each successful battle, they will also set up the infrastructure of something resembling a functional state. They will become a self-funded organization making millions of dollars from oil revenue. Left unchecked, it is hard to say how powerful they could become. The dream of a pan-Islamic caliphate is most certainly beyond their reach, however, they could carve out a very large swath of the Middle East for their empire. If ISIS were to capture the first and second most holy sites of the Islamic faith, Mecca and Medina, the entire Middle East may very well implode.
The ISIS Solution takes a look at the current geopolitical situation, organizational structure of ISIS, and provides new thinking and strategies for dealing with the Islamic State in the Middle East. Its authors and contributors have over fifty years of combined experience in the intelligence, analyst and Special Operations communities. Leadership and a new philosophical conversation of action is needed to eliminate violent terrorism. This book starts the conversation.
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First published November 18, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
June 4, 2015
Meh!! If you're looking for a brief overview of the history of what's going on in Syria and Iraq it is a quick read, other than that nothing special here.
My biggest frustration with this book is the over-arching lack of cultural and Geo-political awareness of the situation in general. The lack of this in-depth awareness and knowledge of the geography and cultures before engaging them militarily has and will continually spell disaster.
Trying to lead a lead a world without understanding those who live in it will ultimately result in extremely poor policy choices. That is ultimately what this book recommends, just more of the same tried and true recipes for long-term failure.
There is so much more to solving this complex problem besides using American Special Forces as some kind of international police hit squad. The roots of this problem are way deeper than the current crisis and span over the last several centuries. The US Invasion may have help facilitated the creation of this group but it has been in making long before the US arrived. The US walked into it almost embarrassingly blind and ignorant of the mess they were getting into.
Can't solve a problem if you don't understand it, and a more comprehensive understanding of the long Geo-Political history of this region is exactly what is missing.
Way too much material to even start.
My biggest frustration with this book is the over-arching lack of cultural and Geo-political awareness of the situation in general. The lack of this in-depth awareness and knowledge of the geography and cultures before engaging them militarily has and will continually spell disaster.
Trying to lead a lead a world without understanding those who live in it will ultimately result in extremely poor policy choices. That is ultimately what this book recommends, just more of the same tried and true recipes for long-term failure.
There is so much more to solving this complex problem besides using American Special Forces as some kind of international police hit squad. The roots of this problem are way deeper than the current crisis and span over the last several centuries. The US Invasion may have help facilitated the creation of this group but it has been in making long before the US arrived. The US walked into it almost embarrassingly blind and ignorant of the mess they were getting into.
Can't solve a problem if you don't understand it, and a more comprehensive understanding of the long Geo-Political history of this region is exactly what is missing.
Way too much material to even start.
September 6, 2021
2.5 stars
UGH! I had high hopes for this book. The first two chapters are fantastic. Like, 4.5 star material. Its interpretation of ISIS, its predictions for what ifs and its understanding of why ISIS exists and how it operates. Incredibly insightful, it evaluates what exactly ISIS is with a cool head and rigorous understanding.
And then... And then its solutions are different ways of attacking ISIS militarily. I wish it were that simple. It explains that ISIS will change shape no matter how it's culled (look at what's happened over the last year and a half, now that it's small again it's even more difficult to manage). And after explaining its anit-American nature and how it manipulates sectarian and cultural divides, especially hatred of the outsider... The solution is to bomb it differently?
The region is already so battle scarred. The world is even more of a powder-keg than it was during Vietnam. (Don't believe me? Read Chomsky's Who Rules the World.) The fact that the solution turning into a proxy war of great powers is acceptable to the author (Murphy's words, not mine) greatly delegitimizes the rationale to me.
Besides all the solutions being military and therefore risking new anti-west extremists in the area, the military solutions are so intense. Like liberation of Normandy in WWII intense. Setting aside that it won't bring a definitive end to the organization, why should the public go along with investing that much into defeating ISIS? The author brings up the possibility of them controlling oil. If that's really such a concern, the US and other western countries can look to Texas and Norway. (Or better yet, start developing a heavier reliance on renewables!)
Declaring war on ISIS in the way that Murphy suggests would end one of two ways. On the one hand, it's a pyrrhic victory that results in the rise of another unpleasant power that dislikes us. On the other, we win and it seems like imperial conquest. Morality of that aside, I doubt we would be welcomed as liberators.
I'm especially pissed off because the first half was so insightful!!!!!
After reading the "bonus content": The military solutions which were the bulk of the solutions are reactionary. Dangerous. Violent.
The cast aside quickly spat out solutions in "bonus content" are well thought out and innovative. It includes "reducing the ugly footprint of the US in the Middle East" and instead helping to build hospitals. HE SAID AFTER ADVOCATING GULF WAR 3 AND SAYING THAT A CIA BACKED PUPPET WOULD BE BETTER THAN IRAQ'S CURRENT INEPT GOVERNMENT! (again, Murphy said this, not me)
UGH! I had high hopes for this book. The first two chapters are fantastic. Like, 4.5 star material. Its interpretation of ISIS, its predictions for what ifs and its understanding of why ISIS exists and how it operates. Incredibly insightful, it evaluates what exactly ISIS is with a cool head and rigorous understanding.
And then... And then its solutions are different ways of attacking ISIS militarily. I wish it were that simple. It explains that ISIS will change shape no matter how it's culled (look at what's happened over the last year and a half, now that it's small again it's even more difficult to manage). And after explaining its anit-American nature and how it manipulates sectarian and cultural divides, especially hatred of the outsider... The solution is to bomb it differently?
The region is already so battle scarred. The world is even more of a powder-keg than it was during Vietnam. (Don't believe me? Read Chomsky's Who Rules the World.) The fact that the solution turning into a proxy war of great powers is acceptable to the author (Murphy's words, not mine) greatly delegitimizes the rationale to me.
Besides all the solutions being military and therefore risking new anti-west extremists in the area, the military solutions are so intense. Like liberation of Normandy in WWII intense. Setting aside that it won't bring a definitive end to the organization, why should the public go along with investing that much into defeating ISIS? The author brings up the possibility of them controlling oil. If that's really such a concern, the US and other western countries can look to Texas and Norway. (Or better yet, start developing a heavier reliance on renewables!)
Declaring war on ISIS in the way that Murphy suggests would end one of two ways. On the one hand, it's a pyrrhic victory that results in the rise of another unpleasant power that dislikes us. On the other, we win and it seems like imperial conquest. Morality of that aside, I doubt we would be welcomed as liberators.
I'm especially pissed off because the first half was so insightful!!!!!
After reading the "bonus content": The military solutions which were the bulk of the solutions are reactionary. Dangerous. Violent.
The cast aside quickly spat out solutions in "bonus content" are well thought out and innovative. It includes "reducing the ugly footprint of the US in the Middle East" and instead helping to build hospitals. HE SAID AFTER ADVOCATING GULF WAR 3 AND SAYING THAT A CIA BACKED PUPPET WOULD BE BETTER THAN IRAQ'S CURRENT INEPT GOVERNMENT! (again, Murphy said this, not me)
September 12, 2017
Great intro to ISIS with an extremely mediocre presentation of "the solution." Notably the book claims to present the solution based on unconventional thinking; however, the solutions presented were extremely basic, unimaginative, and doomed to fail. The book does contain some quality thinking regarding the problem, yet it is presented as unconnected "bonus content" when in reality force coupled with such measures could yield success.
November 21, 2019
Estre livro é patrocinado pelo SOFREP (Special Foces Operation Situation Report) uma organização que acompanha as operações das forças especiais dos EUA através de relatórios de inteligências elaborados por de veteranos das forças especiais.
O livro dá um a excelente ideia do que é e como surgiu o ISIS, e neste aspecto eu daria cinco estrelas, mas não vi nenhuma solução efetivamente apresentada. Defende a ideia, aparentemente bem suportada de que os EUA acabarão por voltar a colocar tropas em solo iraquiano para derrotar o ISIS. A opção seria através de tropas especiais ou tropas mercenárias, para não chocar muito a opinião pública com um envolvimento mais direto.
O livro dá um a excelente ideia do que é e como surgiu o ISIS, e neste aspecto eu daria cinco estrelas, mas não vi nenhuma solução efetivamente apresentada. Defende a ideia, aparentemente bem suportada de que os EUA acabarão por voltar a colocar tropas em solo iraquiano para derrotar o ISIS. A opção seria através de tropas especiais ou tropas mercenárias, para não chocar muito a opinião pública com um envolvimento mais direto.
September 3, 2019
While a bit dated now, and not ever offering full solutions, I believe this book accomplishes the goal that was stated. It's supposed to start a discussion and new way of thinking of dealing with terror groups, and certainly had me debating some of its offered points. The introduction and explanation of how ISIS came about is definitely one of the most concise and organized. In terms of having real solutions, while possible (maybe?) I believe it would work to eliminate ISIS, but not radical Islam as a whole.
March 25, 2018
Best comprehensive look that we have at ISIS, and how to defeat them. Also, shameless plug for the boys at SOFREP.com. Its worth the money for the subscription. Big fan of the podcasts and even bigger fan of the news on the website. One of the only places you'll find their perspective, and its good credible stuff too.
February 1, 2019
Started off interesting, but became a bit tedious. It reads like a research paper. Has some good background info for anyone not familiar with the topic.
December 6, 2014
A lot of information here and a lot to think about.
This book is worth every penny. I'm saying this because we are all confused about what is going on in the middle east and why we are fighting or not fighting. This book gives us answers to how, who, and what do we do about the ISIS Solution. Hence it's title. I'm grateful for Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy for writing this book. I'm grateful for their sincere opinions and for solutions. It's a no b.s. assessment of what needs to be done. It's basically Common Sense.
This book is worth every penny. I'm saying this because we are all confused about what is going on in the middle east and why we are fighting or not fighting. This book gives us answers to how, who, and what do we do about the ISIS Solution. Hence it's title. I'm grateful for Brandon Webb and Jack Murphy for writing this book. I'm grateful for their sincere opinions and for solutions. It's a no b.s. assessment of what needs to be done. It's basically Common Sense.
May 24, 2015
Complex yet crucial analysis. Tough read about reality.
This finally lays out in detail the challenge of the middle east. You can't tell the players without this program. If only we could require its reading by our current administration. It would help us to not waste our time calling Goals Strategies and vice versa.
This finally lays out in detail the challenge of the middle east. You can't tell the players without this program. If only we could require its reading by our current administration. It would help us to not waste our time calling Goals Strategies and vice versa.
June 19, 2016
Three stars only because the information is dated now, but the first 1/2 of the book stating the history of the formation of ISIS from the beginning of the first Iraq war is really interesting. Some of the solution are also quite interesting but there is no way the American public can stomach it, too violent for the average person's sensitive nature unfortunately
December 27, 2014
Rehash
Nothing really new here. No new ideas or strategy. Pretty much all open source material without anything that would stand out as unique.
Nothing really new here. No new ideas or strategy. Pretty much all open source material without anything that would stand out as unique.
March 6, 2015
I wish the book was longer. These are the kind of guys that we need in Washington and not the empty suits. Great book and Sofrep is a great outfit.
September 19, 2015
A concise examination of the ISIS conflict. What makes this book stand out for me was the proffered solutions using both Hard and Soft Power.
April 26, 2017
Very informative. Needs to be updated to reflect our current political situation.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews