Whatever Happened to ISIS?

Well, new U.S. Secretary of Defense former U.S. Marine general Jim “Mad Dog” Mattis for one, who, along with the new president, adjusted the rules of engagement in the Syria-Libya corridor to allow for more on-the-ground control of U.S. forces. Presto, ISIS was on the run. 

Lucky for us, commander Richard J. Witt is someone intimately involved in many of those operations and he is coming to Santa Barbara to speak on Monday, April 9. Montecito Journal, along with the Channel City Club and Brian Robertson‘s Committee on Foreign Relations, is sponsoring his visit, whose theme is “How Special Operations Forces Defeated ISIS in Iraq and Syria”; the talk will take place in the newly renovated Reagan Room at The Fess Parker Doubletree Inn.

U.S. Navy commander Witt is a SEAL and began with SEAL Team One attached to the Defense Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka. His career took him to the Horn of Africa, Western and Central Iraq, Guam, Australia, Indonesia, South Korea, and the Philippines.

In January 2008, as a Platoon Commander of SEAL Team Three, he commanded a SEAL platoon in Ramadi and in Fallujah, Iraq, and oversaw the transition of responsibility from U.S. forces to Provincial Iraqi Control; in 2009, he became Basic Training Command Operations officer managing the expansion of SEAL Qualification Training; in 2010, he became executive officer of Naval Special Warfare Unit Three in Bahrain; from 2013-15, he served as Crisis Action planner and Yemen Action officer with Special Operations Command; in 2016, he was selected to serve in the Commander’s Action Group (CAG) with U.S. Central Command.

This guy has been around and is certain (or at least highly likely) to deliver an in-depth appraisal of past and current conditions, as well as future possibilities for U.S. forces in those sensitive areas. I don’t believe you could hear a more authoritative accounting of the fighting than what you’ll hear from Commander Witt.

Reservations for the lecture and luncheon program prior to it may be made via email to info@channelcity.club.org or over the phone at (805) 564-6223.