…Going Blind
"Washington has good reasons to direct more attention and resources toward China and the Indo-Pacific. But treating the campaign against ISIS as finished business would be a mistake. The group no longer controls cities or large stretches of territory, yet the conditions that helped it rise have not disappeared.
The immediate danger is not another ISIS army sweeping across Iraq or Syria. It is slower deterioration: local forces that remain dependent on outside support, detention facilities that cannot be secured indefinitely, and international attention moving elsewhere. Recent UN assessments continue to describe ISIS as resilient and adaptive. A future resurgence would probably begin at the margins, not with another dramatic march on Mosul.
Preventing that outcome does not require another large American deployment. It does require Washington to decide what it cannot afford to lose as its footprint shrinks. Intelligence, regional access, capable local partners and the ability to respond quickly matter more than preserving yesterday's troop numbers.
That distinction should guide any further U.S. drawdown. Fewer American troops do not automatically mean less security. Losing the intelligence, surveillance and advisory capabilities that allow Washington and its partners to see threats developing is another matter…"
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Armand
says these figures are a painter's dream!
