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MSNBC Foreign Affairs analyst Mikey Kay said that against ISIS, the Obama administration has “been looking at a more sort of Machiavellian approach, avoiding at all costs putting boots on the ground in mass numbers.”
Appearing on “MSNBC Live” on Thursday, Kay argued that there needs to be more alignment with “ground forces, and then we kind of sort of need to look at the more holistic things like financing and Imams in the mosques that we see in Europe and around the world.”
Kay was asked to give a broad progress report on the U.S. and other governments’ plans to prevent terrorist attacks and Kay explained, “I think what the Obama administration has been doing is they’ve been looking at a more sort of Machiavellian approach, avoiding at all costs putting boots on the ground in mass numbers. So they’ve been going through the SF channels, 450 advisers went to Iraq last summer. That will have contained a number of JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controllers), snipe, SF capability, not just in the kinetic roles but in the non-kinetic roles, HUMINT.”
“Human intelligence is a huge key piece that we just don’t have in Syria,” Kay explained. “And that’s what the SF guys will be doing as well: support and influence and surveillance and reconnaissance, especially in places like Ramadi where they’re there to support and bring confidence to the Sunni tribes so they align with Iraqi Security Forces in the future to maintain that security.”
In terms of going after the “head of the snake,” ISIS leaders, Kay suggested, “I think we really do have to take a holistic approach to this. I think what the administration has come to the conclusion of, despite all of the Machiavellian and geopolitical trade that’s been going on is you have to align yourself with ground forces directly.”
“So for example, the alliances with the Peshmerga in northern Iraq, with the Syrian Kurds in the north of Syria, I think they have been key with Kobani, with looking at Ramadi and so on and so forth. And I think those relationships will have to build.”
Citing the cost of U.S air strikes on ISISS of $11 million dollars a day, Kay said, “I think the key question is, is what we’re doing in Iraq and Syria, is that degrading the ability of the Islamic State to prosecute an attack like Paris? And if you look at what’s happened in this year, ‘Hebdo,’ Paris attacks, Tunisia massacre, and a plethora of bombings. Let’s not forget thousands have been killed through Daesh bombs in Baghdad. When we look at all of that, we’ve got to question, are airstrikes enough? I don’t think they are.”
“I think there needs to be a holistic approach,” Kay argued. “We need to align more with ground forces, and then we kind of sort of need to look at the more holistic things like financing and Imams in the mosques that we see in Europe and around the world.”