WRONGHEADED POLICY

A few days ago the US military held a press conference to announce that they had taken out three high valued ISIS targets.  The military spokesman stated that the removal of these high valued operatives would seriously degrade ISIS’ ability to conduct their operations.

I applaud our US Military and their incredible efforts to carry out the directives of civilian superiors safely ensconced in their Washington mansions.  They have been handed the impossible task of winning a war that, in spite of their extraordinary bravery and expertise, they cannot win.  They have been sent on a fool’s errand; and the fools that sent them to fight this unwinnable war should be ashamed.

For you see there is no military solution to the war against ISIS.  For every ISIS operative that we kill with a drone strike there are dozens more waiting to take their place.  ISIS is nothing more than the latest terror organization to arise from the conflagration of the Middle East.  Like Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah or a hundred other violent radical organizations; ISIS uses terror and fear to advance their hate filled agenda. When ISIS is defeated another likeminded terrorist group will take its place. Eliminating three high valued ISIS operatives is like passing over one speed bump in a million mile journey.  It is progress…but in the big picture it is inconsequential.

The only way to defeat ISIS and the other extremist organizations is to defeat their ideology.  The only path to peace is to win the hearts and minds of the radical Muslim community and convince them that the west is not at war with Islam.  The ideology that lies at the core of every radical terrorist organization will not be defeated on a battlefield.  It can only be defeated in the homes and the mosques and the meeting places where ideas take hold and grow into a movement.  

The United States, for all its military might, is powerless in this endeavor.  The only people that can win the hearts and minds of the Muslim community are members of that community.  US involvement in the region only serves to add more fuel to an already roiling fire.

There is little doubt that our military and intelligence communities can inflict heavy casualties on ISIS.  Ted Cruise has suggested that we carpet bomb ISIS until the sand turns to glass.  Donald Trump would have us ban all Muslims from entering the country, water board ISIS and Al Qaeda detainees and “go after their families.”  Hillary Clinton who has shown herself to be far more hawkish than most of her Democratic colleagues, has called for a larger American footprint in the region.  This inflammatory rhetoric may serve as red meat during a political campaign but it emboldens those that hate us, endangers our military personnel on the ground and diminishes the prospects of peace in the region.

The political leadership in this country has sent us on a fool’s errand.  Fear mongering, hate speech and military intervention are not the keys to victory in the Middle East. They are but components of a wrongheaded policy that will lead us down the path to certain defeat.