A new enemy rising

A while back, a website known as Small Wars Journal stirred some outrage when it offered a scenario of the U.S. military being called upon to put down a Tea Party rebellion.

Best I can tell, writers a SWJ have left the Tea Party alone since.

But at least one SWJ contributor sees a new enemy of America rising: A Middle Eastern Caliphate.

Gary Anderson writes:

When that war comes it should not be a counterinsurgency or a series of pinprick counterterrorist strikes merely designed to take out the leadership of ISIS. The capabilities of the new Caliphate have gone far beyond mere insurgency or terrorism. If the Caliphate is to be defeated, it will require a series of ground actions using large combined arms forces to destroy the conventional military forces in the areas where they have gained control. I am not suggesting a refight of the ground war in Iraq. This is not about helping Maliki who has made his own bed, nor is it about helping either the Syrian rebels or the Assad regime in Syria. Those are other sets of issues. The coming war will be about naked U.S. self- interest and eliminating a threat before it coalesces enough to attack us in our homeland. If we buy the Iraqis time to get their act together or help the Syrian moderate rebels by eliminating extremists in the Syrian anti-Assad ranks, it would be icing on the cake, but destroying ISIS' conventional military capability would be the primary  objective.

Glad Mr. Anderson sees the threat of a rising Caliphate. But I continue to think it's folly to put faith in a fantasy of "moderate rebels" in places like Syria being able to prevail when confronted by the fervor of a newly risen Caliphate.