French jets bomb ISIS stronghold in Syria

The Paris terror attacks are likely to galvanize a stronger global military response to Islamic State, after a U.S.-led air war that has lasted more than a year has failed to contain a group now proving itself to be a growing worldwide threat. Ticking time bombs. It’s estimated that 4,000 are from Western Europe with France, Germany and the United Kingdom the biggest contributors. From the same guy who called Islamic State the “JV” previous year, comes another giggle-worthy pronouncement on the progress we’re making to “defeat and destroy” them.

Hollande said that France will combat Islamic State “in all ways” at home and overseas.

Details about one attacker began to emerge: 29-year-old Frenchman Ismael Mostefai, who had a record of petty crime and had been flagged in 2010 for ties to Islamic radicalism. Until now, the militant Sunni group had mostly focused on its internal rivals – Bashar Assad’s regime and rival Muslim Shiites, which the group considers to be heretics.

The Paris carnage has left at least 129 dead – including at least 80 at the Bataclan concert venue in the center of the city.

Extremist Islamist groups often choose between two options: controlling territory locally or carrying out terror attacks overseas. The second Chechen war between Russian security forces and separatist guerrillas in the Caucasus had been underway for nearly five years when a suicide bomber blew up a subway train in Moscow in February of 2004, killing 42 people.

“Anyone who’s been in that business knows that it’s nearly impossible to score 100 percent”, said Bruce Riedel, a former Central Intelligence Agency and White House official.

Finally, in early September, a Chechen band seized 1,128 hostages at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia; 334 civilians, including 186 children, died during the three-day siege. Echoing Jindal was Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, who said more scrutiny is needed of “refugees, visitors and students” entering the U.S. to determine whether anyone is here “to do us harm”.

Kadyrov got from Putin generous funding and a dispensation to ignore federal laws, sparing no one he considered an enemy.

At the request of France, the European Union will hold a special meeting of its interior and justice ministers Friday to assess the impact of the Paris attacks.

The Islamic State now appears to be adopting both models simultaneously.

The Paris terrorists may have the same motivation. While the GOP base loves the kind of hawkish rhetoric that Rubio and others doled out at a presidential debate in Milwaukee this week, America remains tired of foreign wars, leaving little political room for new commitments by Republicans. He may or may not be right about that, but no serious person would make the case that ISIS is contained beyond the chaos of the Middle East. Nor would any serious person contend that ISIS is a jayvee team, the term Mr. Obama once used to describe the Islamic State.

Even before the Paris attacks, France had announced that its sole aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, would be deployed to the Middle East, arriving on November 18.

France has not ignored domestic security since the Charlie Hebdo attack.

The President was saying they were contained in Syria and experts agree. Barriers to broad and constant surveillance are falling. That’s a huge community for authorities to monitor. They, too, had catalogues of suspects and nearly unlimited powers to watch and listen.

So how long does it take?

A few administration officials have argued that the United States, while the campaign in Iraq and Syria grinds on, must do more to address threats from Islamic State affiliates in places such as Libya, the Sinai and Yemen. “They can provide resources”.

“Our goal has to be to recruit more effective partners in Iraq to really go on offense”, Obama said in the ABC interview prior to the Paris attacks. One thing is clear, though: Until the Syrian conflict is resolved and Islamic State is defeated at its epicenter, no country is safe from attacks like the one that shook Paris on Friday night.

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