Fighting ISIS like it's a cancer might just work

Los Angeles

The spate of attacks led or inspired by the Islamic State from Europe to Jakarta has upended confidence that governments around the globe have effective strategies to defeat the terrorist movement. Pessimism persists despite a series of military defeats and economic blows for ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

Reflecting public anxiety, President Barack Obama acknowledged in 2015 that "many Americans are asking whether we are confronted by a cancer that has no immediate cure". In interviews this year, US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter compared the ISIS base in the Middle East to a tumour, demonstrating that the cancer analogy has become embedded in the administration's thinking: "There are metastases elsewhere - Libya, Afghanistan . . ."