Professor warns US against hasty action against ISIS

David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security and an associate professor at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy, said the beheadings of two U.S. journalists and other atrocities committed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, has produced an overreaction by the public and sensational political dialogue.

"Some of the rhetoric where they're saying we must destroy ISIS right away and that we're in imminent peril is overdoing it and could lead us into some imprudent decision," Schanzer said.

He said the U.S. should take a deep breath and confront ISIS in a thoughtful, deliberate manner.

"What we really need is to muster a coalition of Muslim Arab nations along with Western allies," he said.

Schanzer said ISIS poses an immediate threat to U.S. interests abroad, not at home.

"I think it's a manageable threat," he said. "That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but I think it's manageable."

The political attacks flying across the aisle in Washington, D.C., will soon cease in favor of a more unified voice against the militants, who have seized control of a network of cities and roads across Iraq and Syria, he said.

"I think in the end, actually, there's going to be a fair amount of consensus on what we should do going forward, he said.