Risks Associated With U.S. Action or Inaction in Iraq

DAVID BELLAVIA, a Silver Star recipient for his actions during the Second Battle of Fallujah:

• An Iraq veteran’s perspective on what the US is losing with the advance of ISIS
• Problems with depending on drones to win the War on Terror
• Putin or Iran: which is the US’s worse enemy in the Middle East?

JOHN WAGNER, Department of the Army, CENTCOM

• The information war fought by the U.S. in the early years of the Iraq War
• The propaganda and social media expertise of ISIS as seen through their manipulation of popular media
• The U.S. lacking the resources to influence Iraqi Sunni’s due to the abrupt troop withdrawal in 2011

MICHAEL O’HANLON, Senior Fellow with the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brookings Institution

• The potential for a new Iraqi government- how can we get Sunnis in the provinces controlled by ISIS to buy in?
• The need for a new regime in Iraq
• The potential benefits of a Sunni autonomous region and the need for a unity government in Baghdad to facilitate its implementation

KEVIN COLEMAN, Cybersecurity expert at Project Times

• How the United States should respond to Chinese cybercrime
• The need to develop trust with the American people regarding domestic intelligence gathering
• The importance of proactive cybersecurity measures