We are indebted to the Wall Street Journal, the Hoover Institution and the Uncommon Knowledge program with Peter Robinson for this audio grab of General Jim Mattis USMC (Ret'd) setting out the proper role for the military in responding to the Islamic State.
Here's the one minute version which I'll happily summarise further. Annihilation for every ISIL fighter the first time they do battle with us.
With thanks to our reader Fascinated Observer for this and other tips, here's the full interview from March last year. Obama gave this most experienced of generals the flick in 2013.
Finally by way of contrast here is our Prime Minister (Australia is providing the second largest military contribution to the fight against the Islamic State after US forces) on the strategy as he sees it.
The best that could be hoped for is that Prime Minister Turnbull gets out of the road.
As a very young and green businessman I was put in charge of Telstra's $250M PA (1995 dollars) with governments in Victoria.
Telstra was huge, it had huge profits, huge cashflows and captive customers who couldn't really go elsewhere. It wasn't difficult to look like a star executive in those circumstances. Many of our products and services were complex and were delivered in partnership with other companies and dealers - those other parties were always after more of the profit pie and dealing with those constant profit-share issues was a big part of my job.
I came to that job with a similar view to that held by most Australians - Telstra is huge, it makes too much money, this dealer is tiny with his house on the line - give him what he's asking for. Give him more of the money, Telstra can afford it, he will smile, everyone will think I'm great - let's go!
I am eternally grateful for the hard-nosed response I was perpetually given by my boss. Nope. No way. If they deliver more value we can talk, but handing over profit (territory) just because we're bigger is a sure way to become smaller very quickly.
The Islamists are noisy, must like those Telstra partners were. The West is rich,where's our share. The West owes us. You've heard the constant cries. Weak leaders in the West give in to those calls. Weak leaders hold back on action against Islamists simply because Islam is constantly ready to bleat, to be offended and to make life hard for those who oppose it.
If you have the world's largest military force, how could you not use it to annihilate evil like ISIL. Give them nothing, no quarter. Going soft and apologetic because we are the West and we have so much is a sure way to become very small very quickly.