The US War Against ISIS

The US War Against ISIS PDF Author: Aaron Stein
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755634829
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The war against ISIS is often explained through the group's own rise to power. The American side of the story has not yet been told. This book records how the United States and its allies chose to fight the group, what the consequences have been for transatlantic relations, and how these factors may shape future wars the West decides to pursue. The book is based on first-person interviews with U.S. and European policymakers, and members of the military in direct combat against ISIS - from U.S and allied forces on the ground to the Kurdish fighters who fought beside them. These interviews show precisely how the West fights wars through the eyes of the people most involved in them and includes key insights about civilian decision-making as it happened. In tracing the war as it developed, the book examines the West's approach to conflict and reveals new insights such as why both the U.S. military and the civilian bureaucracy underestimated Russian military capabilities. The war was always meant to be small and focused, but its repercussions have been considerable and far-reaching, including a serious rupture in Turkish-Western relations and Russia's return to the Middle East. Aaron Stein shows why mistakes were made in the war against ISIS and what happens when a narrow policy focus on counter terrorism is pursued at the expense of almost all wider regional security and political concerns. At a time when the U.S might be called again to stem the rise of a terror group or to fight against a collective threat, the lessons in this book are essential.

The US War Against ISIS

The US War Against ISIS PDF Author: Aaron Stein
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755634829
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book

Book Description
The war against ISIS is often explained through the group's own rise to power. The American side of the story has not yet been told. This book records how the United States and its allies chose to fight the group, what the consequences have been for transatlantic relations, and how these factors may shape future wars the West decides to pursue. The book is based on first-person interviews with U.S. and European policymakers, and members of the military in direct combat against ISIS - from U.S and allied forces on the ground to the Kurdish fighters who fought beside them. These interviews show precisely how the West fights wars through the eyes of the people most involved in them and includes key insights about civilian decision-making as it happened. In tracing the war as it developed, the book examines the West's approach to conflict and reveals new insights such as why both the U.S. military and the civilian bureaucracy underestimated Russian military capabilities. The war was always meant to be small and focused, but its repercussions have been considerable and far-reaching, including a serious rupture in Turkish-Western relations and Russia's return to the Middle East. Aaron Stein shows why mistakes were made in the war against ISIS and what happens when a narrow policy focus on counter terrorism is pursued at the expense of almost all wider regional security and political concerns. At a time when the U.S might be called again to stem the rise of a terror group or to fight against a collective threat, the lessons in this book are essential.

Airpower in the War Against ISIS

Airpower in the War Against ISIS PDF Author: Benjamin S. Lambeth
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781557501820
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Airpower in the War against ISIS chronicles the planning and conduct of Operation Inherent Resolve by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) from August 2014 to mid-2018, with a principal focus on the contributions of U.S. Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT). Benjamin S. Lambeth contends that the war's costly and excessive duration resulted from CENTCOM's inaccurate assessment of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), determining it was simply a resurrected Iraqi insurgency rather than recognizing it as the emerging proto-state that it actually was. This erroneous decision, Lambeth argues, saw the application of an inappropriate counterinsurgency strategy and use of rules of engagement that imposed needless restrictions on the most effective use of the precision air assets at CENTCOM's disposal. The author, through expert analysis of recent history, forcefully argues that CENTCOM erred badly by not using its ample air assets at the outset not merely for supporting Iraq's initially noncombat-ready ground troops but also in an independent and uncompromising strategic interdiction campaign against ISIS's most vital center-of-gravity targets in Syria from the effort's first moments onward.

Shatter the Nations

Shatter the Nations PDF Author: Mike Giglio
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1541742346
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
Unflinching dispatches of an embedded war reporter covering ISIS and the unlikely alliance of forces who came together to defeat it. The battle to defeat ISIS was an unremittingly brutal and dystopian struggle, a multi-sided war of gritty local commandos and militias. Mike Giglio takes readers to the heart of this shifting, uncertain conflict, capturing the essence of a modern war. At its peak, ISIS controlled a self-styled "caliphate" the size of Great Britain, with a population cast into servitude that numbered in the millions. Its territory spread across Iraq and Syria as its influence stretched throughout the wider world. Giglio tells the story of the rise of the caliphate and the ramshackle coalition--aided by secretive Western troops and American airstrikes--that was assembled to break it down village by village, district by district. The story moves from the smugglers, traffickers, and jihadis working on the ISIS side to the victims of its zealous persecution and the local soldiers who died by the thousands to defeat it. Amid the battlefield drama, culminating in a climactic showdown in Mosul, is a dazzlingly human portrait of the destructive power of extremism, and of the tenacity and astonishing courage required to defeat it.

They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate

They Will Have to Die Now: Mosul and the Fall of the Caliphate PDF Author: James Verini
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393652483
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
"They Will Have to Die Now is the story of what happened after most Americans stopped paying attention to Iraq…It will take its place among the very best war writing of the past two decades." —George Packer, author of Our Man and The Assassins’ Gate James Verini arrived in Iraq in the summer of 2016 to write about life in the Islamic State. He stayed to cover the jihadis’ last great stand, the Battle of Mosul, not knowing it would go on for nearly a year, nor that it would become, in the words of the Pentagon, "the most significant urban combat since WWII." They Will Have to Die Now takes the reader into the heart of the conflict against the most lethal insurgency of our time. We see unspeakable violence, improbable humanity, and occasional humor. We meet an Iraqi major fighting his way through the city with a bad leg; a general who taunts snipers; an American sergeant who removes his glass eye to unnerve his troops; a pair of Moslawi brothers who welcomed the Islamic State, believing, as so many Moslawis did, that it might improve their shattered lives. Verini also relates the rich history of Iraq, and of Mosul, one of the most beguiling cities in the Middle East.

The US War Against ISIS

The US War Against ISIS PDF Author: Aaron Stein
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0755634810
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The war against ISIS is often explained through the group's own rise to power. The American side of the story has not yet been told. This book records how the United States and its allies chose to fight the group, what the consequences have been for transatlantic relations, and how these factors may shape future wars the West decides to pursue. The book is based on first-person interviews with U.S. and European policymakers, and members of the military in direct combat against ISIS - from U.S and allied forces on the ground to the Kurdish fighters who fought beside them. These interviews show precisely how the West fights wars through the eyes of the people most involved in them and includes key insights about civilian decision-making as it happened. In tracing the war as it developed, the book examines the West's approach to conflict and reveals new insights such as why both the U.S. military and the civilian bureaucracy underestimated Russian military capabilities. The war was always meant to be small and focused, but its repercussions have been considerable and far-reaching, including a serious rupture in Turkish-Western relations and Russia's return to the Middle East. Aaron Stein shows why mistakes were made in the war against ISIS and what happens when a narrow policy focus on counter terrorism is pursued at the expense of almost all wider regional security and political concerns. At a time when the U.S might be called again to stem the rise of a terror group or to fight against a collective threat, the lessons in this book are essential.

The Air War Against the Islamic State

The Air War Against the Islamic State PDF Author: Becca Wasser
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781977406057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
Airpower played a pivotal role in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State from 2014 to 2019 and contributed to the success of Operation Inherent Resolve, but airpower alone would not have been likely to defeat the militant organization.

Hunting the Caliphate

Hunting the Caliphate PDF Author: Dana J.H. Pittard
Publisher: Post Hill Press
ISBN: 1642930563
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
In this vivid first-person narrative, a Special Operations Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) and his commanding general give fascinating and detailed accounts of America’s fight against one of the most barbaric insurgencies the world has ever seen. In the summer of 2014, three years after America’s full troop withdrawal from the Iraq War, President Barack Obama authorized a small task force to push back into Baghdad. Their mission: Protect the Iraqi capital and U.S. embassy from a rapidly emerging terrorist threat. A plague of brutality, that would come to be known as ISIS, had created a foothold in northwest Iraq and northeast Syria. It had declared itself a Caliphate—an independent nation-state administered by an extreme and cruel form of Islamic law—and was spreading like a newly evolved virus. Soon, a massive and devastating U.S. military response had unfolded. Hear the ground truth on the senior military and political interactions that shaped America’s war against ISIS, a war unprecedented in both its methodology and its application of modern military technology. Enter the world of the Strike Cell, secretive operations centers where America’s greatest enemies are hunted and killed day and night. Plunge into the realm of the Special Operations JTAC, American warfighters with the highest enemy kill counts on the battlefield. And gain the wisdom of a cumulative half-century of military experience as Dana Pittard and Wes Bryant lay out the path to a sustained victory over ISIS. For more information about the book, visit www.huntingthecaliphate.com.

The West’s War Against Islamic State

The West’s War Against Islamic State PDF Author: Andrew Mumford
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1788317327
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
On the 29th of June 2014 ISIS declared the establishment of a caliphate stretching across territories in Iraq and Syria. In response, Operation Inherent Resolve, a US-led 77 nation coalition, was launched to respond to the threat of Islamic State. The West's War Against Islamic State offers the first history of Operation Inherent Resolve and the West's war against ISIS, from its inception in 2014 to the fall of Raqqa in 2017. Andrew Mumford offers a comprehensive analysis and assessment of the military campaign deployed against ISIS in Syria and Iraq by examining the West's strategic objectives as well as the conflicting interests of rival powers, namely Russia, Iran and Turkey. By examining individual operational components of this military engagement such as drone usage, cyber warfare, special forces operations and sponsorship of guerrilla forces, this book offers a unique insight into the nature of modern warfare.

After ISIS

After ISIS PDF Author: Seth J. Frantzman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789657023099
Category : Iraq War, 2003-2011
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This book, based on four years of on-the-ground reporting, research in ten countries in the Middle East, a thousand hours of interviews with key players and access to generals, spies, policymakers, soldiers and refugees, is the first comprehensive look at the defeat of ISIS and the future reshaping of the Middle East. It provides a unique window into the battle for the heart and soul of the Muslim world and lays out why we need to be informed about changes on the ground after the defeat of ISIS. More than seventy countries are members of the international coalition formed in 2014 to defeat Islamic State (ISIS). After ISIS provides a sobering blueprint for how the US and regional powers will re-shape the region in years to come. Understanding these events and the choices ahead will determine if ISIS and similar ideologies reemerge, whether a new war between the US, its allies and Iran comes in the wake of ISIS, or if a younger generation of leaders can carve out a new Middle East. As ISIS recedes, the world is at a unique historic crossroads in the Middle East. Decisions made now in the region and in Washington matter more than ever. Tehran and the US are increasingly on a collision course to struggle over the vacuum left behind by ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

With Us and Against Us

With Us and Against Us PDF Author: Stephen Tankel
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 023154734X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush drew a line in the sand, saying, “Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” Since 9/11, many counterterrorism partners have been both “with” and “against” the United States, helping it in some areas and hindering it in others. This has been especially true in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, where the terrorist groups that threaten America are most concentrated. Because so many aspects of U.S. counterterrorism strategy are dependent on international cooperation, the United States has little choice but to work with other countries. Making the most of these partnerships is fundamental to the success of the War on Terror. Yet what the United States can reasonably expect from its counterterrorism partners—and how to get more out of them—remain too little understood. In With Us and Against Us, Stephen Tankel analyzes the factors that shape counterterrorism cooperation, examining the ways partner nations aid international efforts, as well as the ways they encumber and impede effective action. He considers the changing nature of counterterrorism, exploring how counterterrorism efforts after 9/11 critically differ both from those that existed beforehand and from traditional alliances. Focusing on U.S. partnerships with Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen against al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist organizations, Tankel offers nuanced propositions about what the U.S. can expect from its counterterrorism partners depending on their political and security interests, threat perceptions, and their relationships with the United States and with the terrorists in question. With Us and Against Us offers a theoretically rich and policy-relevant toolkit for assessing and improving counterterrorism cooperation, devising strategies for mitigating risks, and getting the most out of difficult partnerships.