While a popular adage states that bullets can’t kill ideas, they can prove quite effective, argues Dennis Ross, when it comes to the ideas of Islamic State (IS)—especially if coupled with savvy use of social media and a change in policy toward Iran:
Islamic State claims to have a divine mandate. Suffering military defeats can demonstrate the hollowness of this claim. Presently, [the U.S. is] rolling it back in both Iraq and Syria. Unfortunately, until [America and its allies] undo the group’s greatest symbolic victories—its seizure of Mosul in Iraq and the establishment of a capital in Raqqa, Syria—its image of success will remain. [Taking away] the symbols of these achievements is thus essential and would be impossible [for IS] to hide.
There are other means for exposing the fraudulent nature of the group’s claims, and here social media can play a role. . . Why not showcase those surrendering on social media? What kind of divine messengers surrender? Similarly, put defectors on social-media platforms and let them tell the story of the brutality, injustice, exploitation of women, and corrupt and arbitrary nature of rule in IS-controlled territory.
IS [also] claims it is the protector of Sunni Muslims against the non-believers and . . . Shiite Muslims. If nothing else, this tells us that Iran cannot be a partner in discrediting IS. On the contrary, its role in the mass killing of Sunnis in Syria has contributed to the rise of IS. We need the Sunnis—clerics, tribes, and governments—to discredit and replace IS on the ground. . . . Our problem in getting Sunnis to take on this role is that our priority in Syria and Iraq is IS—while Iran, the Shiite militias, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are the Sunni preoccupations. . . . The next president must understand this complicated reality and use our readiness to counter Iran in the region to gain leverage and influence to move the Sunnis to make IS their priority as well as ours.
Read more on USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/06/21/isis-terrorism-homeland-security-sunnis-iran-column/85993054/