President Obama recently proclaimed that if we put troops on the ground to fight ISIS, they will use “our presence to draw new recruits.” Only with Obama’s current strategy of bombing, advising and allying will we have “sustainable victory.”
There is a giant irrationality at the heart of the president’s logic. It’s mainly U.S. violence that helps ISIS “draw new recruits,” and not just our presence. Does Obama really think that Middle Easterners distinguish much between dying from an American bomb from the air and an American bullet from the ground?
Both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates agree with Obama or want to inject even more violence. Many Republicans contend that ISIS is “Islamic extremism” and that it is a “clash of civilizations.” I think there’s good reason for many Middle Easterners to believe in this clash, given the number of bombs and invasions the US has inflicted on them.
Democrats are trying to finesse the violence while rightly defending American religious and immigrant freedoms. But they seem blind to the effect of dropping of tens of thousands of bombs. The effect is that many Muslims have had friends or family killed by Americans bombs and thus good reason to hate us.
We may be headed for an almost endless war against a good portion of the up-to 1.6 billion Muslims, almost a quarter of the world’s population. This could be World War III.
I believe that total U.S. military withdrawal from the Middle East is the only hope for peace. Haven’t we tried violence long enough?
The only presidential candidate who agrees with me is the little-known Jill Stein of the Green Party who proclaims: “These reckless and destructive wars have done nothing but create tremendous blowback against the U.S. around the world. It’s time to discard the failed foreign policy of endless war and break the cycle of violence through diplomacy, international law and human rights.” Hear, hear!
— Bill Branyon
Asheville
LOL, no. Only making examples of them just like they do via mass beheadings will make them think twice lulz. Weaklings and fools believe that disarming FIRST will some how make others do the same LOL. Uh no, it’ll just make it easier for them to roll over you. The current mess is due to the fool at 1600 Penn Ave pulling out of Iraq, taking out Khadafi, and boldly proclaiming action on a line that was crossed multiple times by Assad . And people like you sir who live in la la land put him there. Someone who wasn’t vetted, incapable of thinking outside of the ideological and the political, and is as incompetent as they come LOL.
This recycling of terrorists is all by design. Our arrogant foreign policy creates resentment; NOT security. It’s to feed the military industrial complex. There will always be an “enemy” to fight, because we will always create one. The capitalistic model is too dependent on War and imperialism for its expansion. Peace is a utopian dream; and may happen temporarily as more wars brew.
Carpet bomb Racca and arm the Kurds and Greeks. To hell with Turkey. Stop interfering with Russia or Iran.
Cut the military budget. the B-52s and dumb carpet bombs are old and cheap and already heaped up in 40 year old stockpiles. Transfer troops to the middle east from South Korea, where they are sitting around doing nothing.