More War

Nov. 27, 2015

Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan has satisfied our need for war. Syria is now in our sights. The bloodlust fever is once again high.

A group of murderers claiming affiliation with ISIS or ISIL or ISI, or whatever it is we’re calling them now, massacred 130 people in various locations in Paris — and since ISIL is in Syria, we’ll go to war in Syria, despite the fact that none of the attackers in Paris were Syrian; they were all European nationals.

Nearly every politician seems to have his/her own theory of how to defeat the terrorists and the most popular solution, with the exception of Bernie Sanders and Rand Paul, is more military action: more bombs, more missiles, more drones and boots on the ground.

President Obama, we’re told, is a reluctant warrior unwilling to engage. He leads from behind, his critics say, but according to the Department of Defense, Obama has authorized nearly 7,000 airstrikes against suspected ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria in just the last 15 months. That’s four times more than rest of the anti-ISIL coalition combined. We keep killing their leaders who seem to be quickly replaced.

As a bonus, Congress, in addition to its war-mongering hobby, has decided we will accept no Syrian refugees into the United States — no widows, no orphans, nobody. We’ll be happy to create more refugees with more war that destroys more infrastructure, but don’t be sending those pesky refugees here.

We probably should be asking ourselves what it is we think “winning” this war would look like. It isn’t likely we’ll kill every jihadist and jihadist wannabe. There are now more than three dozen groups and loose-knit organizations claiming some kind of affiliation with, or loyalty to, ISIL or al Qaida. We don’t know exactly who they are or where they are or how we’re going to find them.

In fact, there is no front line or any traditional battle line in this war. The enemy has no clear command or control center or operation; they don’t wear uniforms or operate vehicles with identifiable insignias; and they have no vertical command structure. It isn’t even clear if there is a leader.

Most troubling, they have no obvious strategic goals other than creating chaos and carnage — a caliphate of killing. They are nihilists of the darkest sort, willing to randomly kill for no cause other than killing itself, finished in perfect bloodletting symmetry with suicide bombs.

The deeper we get involved, the more it plays into their hands. Their recruiting narrative — which appeals to a very large unemployed, disaffected chunk of young Arab and Muslim men — is a simple “us versus them.” The proof, they say, is evident everywhere: the Great Satan has invaded their lands, put military bases in the countries that house their holiest sites, killed at least tens of thousands (and more likely many hundreds of thousands) of civilians, destroyed their infrastructure and ruined their futures.

We aren’t the only culprits, of course, but there is some truth in those claims. If we are not the direct cause of the mess in the Middle East, at the very least we toppled the first domino and we’ve helped them continue to fall for nearly 15 years — and not in a good way.

A “victory” on our part would leave behind the same breeding ground for the next wave of jihadists ready to exploit a region that’s been reduced to rubble. Yet, the only solution we hear, from most presidential candidates and most politicians, is more bombs, more troops, more intervention, more war. Since none of them are prepared to raise taxes, which would at least require some participatory contribution from the rest of us, it also means more deficits and debt. It also means more surveillance, more eavesdropping, more hassles.

And for what? A victory we aren’t likely to achieve in an area where we don’t belong, that we don’t understand, fighting battles Syria’s neighbors should be fighting. Every bomb we drop and every missile we fire is another recruiting poster for the other side.

It seems Washington just can’t help but make things worse. They’ve already done that with our shameful attitude toward the refugees we’ve helped create. Some politicians are suggesting we make things worse still by surveilling mosques and keeping track of all Muslims. Others have suggested a religious test for any new citizens.

It’s all anathema to the values we’ve held dear for more than two centuries. Now some politicians would erase those values and sections of the constitution. They want more war, more killing, more fear, more bigotry... we’re No. 1.

Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free... unless they happen to be Syrian orphans or any Syrian refugee... or Muslims... or Mexicans...

Emma Lazarus’ classic will need some editing.