SOFREP Daily Brief

• To defeat ISIS, leave Assad in Power

  After the dramatic and horrible Paris terror attacks last Friday, many are alarmed that the ISIS threat is out of control. In a reactive pose that has become routine for the group, it has claimed responsibility for—or, more accurately, boorishly celebrated—the tragic venture that killed 132. But whatever ISIS’s degree of complicity in the Paris attacks, it does not deserve credit for great military prowess. – Time

• Topless Lebanese girls burn ISIS flags!

  Read more here: Walter Mondale Jnr

• The myth of the terrorist mastermind

  ow that French authorities have named a suspected chief planner of the Paris attacks—27-year-old Belgian ISIS veteran Abdelhamid Abaaoud—the press is building him up as if he’s 100 feet tall. Abaaoud isn’t just another opportunist butcher of innocent flesh, he’s a “mastermind,” concur the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, CBS News, Fox News, Time, NPR, the Guardian, NBC News, the Independent, and other outlets. Even POLITICO gets in on the act, though hedging it as the “alleged mastermind.” – Politico

• Obama’s take on our strategy to deal with ISIS

  4:42 P.M. EET PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good afternoon. Let me begin by thanking President Erdogan and the people of Antalya and Turkey for their outstanding work in hosting this G20 Summit. Antalya is beautiful. The hospitality of the Turkish people is legendary. To our Turkish friends — çok teşekkürler. (Laughter.) I’ve been practicing that… – The White House – Office of the Press Secretary

• ‘Hope to see you again’: China warship to U.S. destroyer after South China Sea patrol

  

  As soon as the guided-missile destroyer USS Lassen breached 12-nautical-mile territorial limits around one of China’s man-made islands in the disputed South China Sea last week, a Chinese warship shadowing its movements began demanding answers. “‘Hey, you are in Chinese waters. What is your intention?’,” it asked, as recounted to reporters on Thursday by Commander Robert Francis, commanding officer of the Lassen. His crew replied that they were operating in accordance with international law, and intended to transit past the island, carrying out what U.S. officials have called a freedom-of-navigation exercise designed to challenge China’s claims to the strategic waterway. – Reuters

[Featured image: Getty]