Do Great Nations Fight Endless Wars? Against the Islamic State, They Might by Haroro J. Ingram and Craig Whiteside - War on the Rocks
In his State of the Union Address, President Donald Trump declared that “Great nations do not fight endless wars.” It was a memorable line, met with bipartisan applause that provided the backdrop for again emphasizing his administration’s intention to draw down U.S. force commitments in Afghanistan and Syria. Previously, Trump had identified the defeat of the Islamic State (also known as ISIL) as the justification for withdrawal from Syria. Yet the last four years have shown the global implications of mistakenly believing the Islamic State was permanently defeated after 2011. The question for past, present, and even future administrations is how should a great nation confront an adversary like Islamic State that is committed to fighting forever war? The answer requires a more advanced understanding of Islamic State as a strategic adversary than we generally possess…