The Islamic State Cancer

Islamic State Warns Of Sleeper Cells in the West
- Michael Georgy and Mariam Karouny

One Islamic State fighter told Reuters:
"The West are idiots and fools. They think we are waiting for them to give us visas to go and attack them or that we will attack with our beards or even Islamic outfits....They don't know we can play their game in intelligence. They infiltrated us with those who pretend to be Muslims and we have also penetrated them with those who look like them."
    
Another Islamic State militant said: "America will send its rockets, and we will send our bombs. Our land will not be attacked while their land is safe." 
(Reuters)


After Beheading, Obama Calls for "Effort to Extract This Cancer"

In response to the murder of American journalist Jim Foley, President Barack Obama said:

"Let's be clear about ISIL [ISIS]. They have rampaged across cities and villages - killing innocent, unarmed civilians in cowardly acts of violence. They abduct women and children, and subject them to torture and rape and slavery. They have murdered Muslims - both Sunni and Shia - by the thousands. They target Christians and religious minorities, driving them from their homes, murdering them when they can for no other reason than they practice a different religion."
     
"The United States of America will continue to do what we must do to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless. When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what's necessary to see that justice is done....There has to be a common effort to extract this cancer, so that it does not spread." 
(White House)


It Will Take More than Words to Stop ISIS - Editorial
 
With each day, the barbarism of the Islamist extremists terrorizing Syria and Iraq becomes more evident - as does the need for the U.S. and its allies to act more vigorously to block their rise. Islamist extremists in Syria and Iraq are training hundreds of foreign terrorists, including from Europe and the U.S., who could easily slip back into their home countries with malign intent. They proudly proclaim their enmity to America. America needs a genuine strategy in response.
(Washington Post)


Destroy the Islamic State Now - Gen. John Allen 

If all the actions of the Islamic State to date weren't sufficiently reprehensible, the brutal murder of the brave American journalist James Foley and the potential for other similar acts will snap American attention with laser-like focus onto the real danger IS poses to the existence of Iraq, the order of the region and to the homelands of Europe and America. Make no mistake, the abomination of IS is a clear and present danger to the U.S.
     
The U.S. is now firmly in the game and remains the only nation on the planet capable of exerting the kind of strategic leadership, influence and strike capacity to deal with IS. 

The Islamic State is an entity beyond the pale of humanity and it must be eradicated. If we delay now, we will pay later. 
The writer, former commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, is a distinguished fellow of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution.
(Defense One)
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