2016 is the election of foreign policy and most important it is about the destruction of the barbaric group we call ISIS…..both major candidates have received applause for their calls for the destruction of this group….it is a popular campaign promise….but is there something else that we should consider when dealing with this bunch a savages?

The Atlantic has published a short series on an optional way of looking at the battle we are having with ISIS…..

In 2003, David Petraeus, then a division commander in Iraq, famously asked “tell me how this ends?” in reference to the conflict just starting there. It was a good question then, and it’s a good question now. The war against the Islamic State gets a lot of attention, much of it focused on the immediate: Is the war going better or worse this month than last month? Is the Islamic State gaining ground or losing it? Are U.S. air strikes killing more Islamic State leaders or fewer? But these things only matter if they contribute to an ultimate end to the conflict on terms the United States can live with. Will they?

In fact, we have a lot of evidence on wars like this and how they typically end. But it’s not a very encouraging story. The Islamic State threat is likely to persist, in one form or another, for a long time. In the meantime, we’re going to be stuck with a policy that amounts to containment and damage limitation, whose shortcomings will frustrate many Americans.

Source: Patience and Containment Are the Best Policies Against ISIS – The Atlantic

Patraeus?  Would that be the very same genius of the Iraqi Surge?  And he said what?

Then this publication followed up that story with yet another……

In recent weeks, ISIS has suffered territorial losses on multiple fronts, including in Iraq, Libya, and Syria. The organization may look nearer to defeat than at any time in the past two years, but there is still a great deal of fighting to be done before the group is destroyed, or more likely beaten back to an underground terrorist organization as it was in 2009. In a previous post, we argued that truly defeating the ISIS threat would be more expensive than most now recognize, and beyond what most Americans would be willing to pay, leaving containment as the only viable option. Ambassador James Jeffrey disagrees.

In particular, he argues that the United States and its allies should reinforce today’s U.S. force of roughly 5,000 soldiers with another 10,000 troops, order them to lead a conventional ground offensive against ISIS, and loosen the rules of engagement for ground fighting and air strikes to tolerate more civilian casualties. With these policies, Jeffrey argues, ISIS can be defeated promptly. Once Raqqa falls, the real U.S. mission is complete in his view. He doesn’t say what those 15,000 soldiers should do then, but he’s opposed to a costly stabilization mission and implies that U.S. troops should instead go home and avoid further commitment.

Source: What to Do About ISIS: The Problem With Vows to ‘Defeat’ the Islamic State – The Atlantic

So basically they are calling for a containment of ISIS rather than a defeat……

A Right Wing think tank for Israel sees it the same way…..but it is purely for the help this group could provide to Israel……

According to a think tank that does contract work for NATO and the Israeli government, the West should not destroy ISIS, the fascist Islamist extremist group that is committing genocide and ethnically cleansing minority groups in Syria and Iraq.

Why? The so-called Islamic State “can be a useful tool in undermining” Iran, Hezbollah, Syria and Russia, argues the think tank’s director.

“The continuing existence of IS serves a strategic purpose,” wrote Efraim Inbar in “The Destruction of Islamic State Is a Strategic Mistake,” a paper published on Aug. 2.

Source: Israeli think tank: Don’t destroy ISIS; it’s a “useful tool” against Iran, Hezbollah, Syria – Salon.com

A case has been made for the containment of ISIS over destruction….but there is another aspect that needs to be considered….

The destruction could create a bigger problem……

Source: A Terrorist Diaspora | Ace News Room

Would a weakened ISIS contained in the Middle East be more preferable to a total destruction?

That is the question that needs some serious thought and a definitive answer.