As Yogi Berra once said, “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” Just a month ago a vast segment of the American public were totally unfamiliar with names and places like Yazidis, Sinjar Mountain, Persh Merga, ISIS, caliphate, Mosul Dam, and Erbil.
Suddenly, with the reemergence of the more strident and violent incarnation of Al Qaeda, known as the Islamic State, murder, genocide and chaos are prevalent in Iraq. U.S. policy and an ill-informed administration should have known that the total removal of a U.S. presence in Iraq would leave this crippled nation extremely vulnerable to terrorist forces. Military and political chaos has quickly developed in Iraq and other critical Middle Eastern countries.
One can argue that the seeds of the modern continuous conflagrations in this part of the world were created in Paris in 1919, with the Paris Peace Conference at the end of WWI. It is there that modern countries such as Iraq, Israel, and others were carved out, and others haunt the world to this day.
The Obama administration is delusional or dreaming if they think a few “pin point” air strikes will decimate ISIS. The Islamic State is a serious, dangerous, and well-financed terrorist organization with quite an army of vicious fighters. This group is a serious threat to Europe and the United States. Make no mistake, they want to kill us and destroy our democracy, religion, freedom, and society.
Where is the bully pulpit the president of the United States should be using to rally the support of the free world to destroy ISIS? Does the United States have a salient foreign policy? What is this era about and how should the United States both lead and/or react? Have we become the “too little, too late” former leader of the democratic nations of the world? These are hard questions that need concrete answers—NOW. Not just politically motivated news snippets from Martha’s Vineyard.
As most anyone can discern, the chaos in the Middle East will last for a long time. It already has seen continuing strife for an extraordinary amount of time. The conflicts today directly threaten the homeland security of the United States in numerous ways. From direct attacks to cyber security, America may now be even more vulnerable due to the rise of ISIS. Where was the intelligence information the United States should have had in this matter and the implications of a total U.S. withdrawal from Iraq? The administration must have a better plan than “just not doing stupid stuff.”
The exodus of people in the Kurdish region of Iraq to escape being executed is a wake up for Christians everywhere. The Islamic extremists, such as ISIS, must be stopped and destroyed.
Spawned in Syria, consolidated in Iraq where opportunity abounded, ISIS is now perhaps the fastest growing ultimate threat to America’s homeland security. ISIS is indeed a terrorist army.
This is a mounting time of growing concern and worry. America must not endure another 9-11.
James Nick says
It’s Obama’s fault. No matter the problem, everything is always Obama’s fault. The Middle East, Sudan, Crimea, Ukraine, Russia shooting down passenger jets, why even the drought in California, the Ebola virus epidemic, and even the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO must somehow all be Obama’s fault.
Is it possible that there are actually some things in the firmament that aren’t actually President Obama’s fault? Is it possible there are problems so complex that they defy logic, that cannot be anticipated, that are simply intractable, and where there are only bad, no-win options available? If there are, then the Middle East surely fits the bill. The Middle East has been a toxic, boiling cesspool of racial, sectarian, tribal, and religious hatred for centuries and the complex Darwinian politics of the region are such that they produce an endless string of repulsive dictators and warlords. No US president, or any other diplomat for that matter, has come anywhere close to notching a success in the Middle East that has stuck — ever! In this context, “Don’t do stupid stuff” is as good an operating principle as any. It’s the diplomatic equivalent of the doctor’s maxim of “First, do no harm”.
However, if Mr Hall insists on playing the blame game, let’s review the historical record. He correctly points out that the distal cause of the events in the Middle East has its roots in arrogant post-WW I imperialism. But Mr Hall conveniently fails to mention that it was the actions of George W Bush that are the clear proximal cause of what is going on in the Mid-East today.
Talk about an arrogant, uninformed, delusional, and even criminal administration. Despite urgent intelligence warnings that Al Qaeda was intent on attacking the homeland, it was George W Bush who was asleep at the switch in 2001 and allowed 9-11 to happen. It was George W Bush that went after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan only to let it degenerate into a protracted war against the Taliban as a distraction because he was unable to decapitate Al Qaeda at Tora Bora. It was George W Bush who attacked Iraq on the basis of a trumped up charge that Saddam Hussein was somehow complicit in the 9-11 attacks. It was George W Bush that appointed Paul Bremer as Governor of Iraq after he arrogantly declared that our military “Mission [was] Accomplished”. It was Bremer who banished all Sunni participation in Iraq politics that we are now desperately trying to reverse. It was Bremer who essentially anointed the sectarian pit bull and Iranian henchman Nouri al-Maliki as Iraqi Prime Minister who was just booted from office. It was al-Maliki who, following Bremer’s lead, promptly fired all the seasoned and capable Sunni officers from the Iraqi military, the very officer corps that is now collaborating with ISIS. These, folks, were the pivotal events that lead directly to the emergence of ISIS as it is constituted today, not our withdrawal from Iraq. The Iraqi army would have laid down its weapons in the face of ISIS even if our troops were still there because they owed no allegiance to an Iraq lead by the Bush-installed, divisive al-Maliki.
ISIS is indeed a potent threat to the region and world. It must be what it was like when the civilized world had to face down the barbarian hordes of Attila the Hun. But being drawn into another Middle-Eastern quagmire alone where we do all the fighting and dying and spend all our treasure is a rabbit hole we don’t need to go down again. W already tried the cowboy, going-it-alone approach, remember? We need to form regional alliances with people who have even more to lose than we do if ISIS breaks out. And I wonder what Mr Hall will say if it comes to pass that it takes an alliance with Iran and Syria to defeat ISIS? Pick your poison Mr Hall.
Joe Lill says
Well said! The Op-Ed author’s banal Obsessive Compulsive writings regarding the Middle East and elsewhere probably won’t change until US C-17’s start bringing back the body bags of American Troops who have needlessly died fighting other peoples’ wars.
Pete Buxtun says
Aw man, Fletcher Hall wrote another Op-Ed.
Thanks Obama!
Stephan Sonn says
Fletcher apparently is the keeper of the flame.
Mark Einstein says
Jack,
Your final paragraph makes perfect sense and could stand on its own without discussion of which US presidents are to blame. The fact is that all civilized societies recognize the barbaric nature of the global jihad, (the roots of which extend way deeper than any action GWB’s administration or Obama’s has taken). Unlike communism, fascism, Darwinsm, or any other extreme social or political philosophy, radical Islam has no rational (liberal or conservative) defense. In fact, it is contrary to every principal envisioned by the Enlightenment thinkers who brought freedom and democracy into the modern world. Freedom and democracy are two very dangerous concepts if not founded on the principles of civil liberties and civil rights. It has been and continues to be a painful history for Americans and other members of the “free world”. We have come to a point in world history where the haves and the have nots are not necessarily defined by their wealth, but more by their sense of civility. The vicious acts of violence perpetrated in the name of Allah are barbaric and should be opposed by all who value civility. The civilized people of the world need to get their heads out of reality TV oblivion and come together to face this threat. The women of the world need to unite in protest. The religions of the world need to unite in protest. And the races of the world need to unite in protest. Nobody should expect a US president to face this threat alone.