Listening to politicians, and even current public opinion, we are told that to fight the group currently being called ISIS by some and ISIL by others, we must have US Soldiers on the ground. To believe this is needed, or will even be helpful, is to ignore the current state of Iraq and Afghanistan.
As with so much world news, it appears that there is a huge amount of ignorance on why those wars were failures. The current state of those countries also seems to be a mystery to people in the US. It's time to shed some light on the situation.
The biggest reason troops has not worked, and will not work, is the same reason we failed in the Vietnam and Korean wars. The majority of the fighters on the other side are not in a standing army we can confront. The fighters are mingled in with large populations in very small numbers. It is a gorilla force that constantly moves. Their gear is portable and light. With the exception of the large offensives they wear the same clothing daily as the rest of the population. Distinguishing a fighter from a shop owner at a glance is impossible.
The US wars of yesteryear, like World War II, are not the same type of war as the US has tried to fight since then. If this was a war with a country like China or Russia conventional rules would apply and I would not make the claim that boots don't matter. The US has unmatched air superiority, naval superiority, and our ground troops are some of the best trained in the world with the best equipment in the world. Even though China boasts more soldiers than the US, our full spectrum dominance offsets their number advantage. This is NOT that kind of war!
The US Policies are generating soldiers to fight against us in the Middle East. There are thousands of stories of people being killed by drones in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and even in Pakistan. The overwhelming number of those attacks are accompanied by the deaths of innocent people. Oh, I hear what I'm told on the news about people harboring terrorists but let me give you a slightly different perspective.
Imagine a couple armed bank robbers bust into your house and hold you at gunpoint. Now imagine that a police officer fires a Hellfire missile into your house because the armed bank robbers are inside. Hey, you were harboring them so it's your fault you died in the missile attack. Right? If you believe the media in the US, every case of innocent people dieing is due to the unarmed populace not taking action against the guys with guns.
Consider a story I read not too long ago where two men in a pickup truck drove into a village. Nobody in the village knew who they were, so a few of the locals came out to see who they were and what they wanted. While the two strangers were being questioned, a Hellfire missile stuck the crowd. Then the pickup truck, and then a building next to where the locals were questioning the two strangers. A curious 13 year old was killed along with the town clergy, all told nearly twenty deaths.
The families of the innocent people killed have no justice, never get to face or question the people responsible, and have no option for reparations. Unfortunately there are hundreds of these stories.
We are making far more enemies than we kill.
It is this scenario that caused us to fail in Iraq and Afghanistan. Indiscriminate killing has resulted in large numbers of people that despise the US foreign policies, and therefor the US people responsible for the deaths of innocent family and friends. While many never pick up a weapon or plant an explosive, they can silently support those that do. That is exactly why troops won't help. It did not win in two wars that lasted over a decade, and it won't help now.
No critique of the war policy would be complete without pointing out a few other critical failures.
Remember how we went into Iraq and Afghanistan to "Liberate" them from horrible dictators? Well, when the "new" leaders the US puts into power are more corrupt than the dictators we ejected what do we expect? We never built political systems that these countries could use, democracy never existed. The US installed puppets who would support the US, but those puppets were in it for personal gain at the expense of the populace.
The US didn't stop at just destabilizing Iraq and Afghanistan, we helped to kill Gaddafi as well. Isn't Libya a great place today? Well no, in fact if you look at a map if ISIS held territory you will see what the US intervention achieved.
Syria is the real target, don't let anyone fool you. The US changed their mind two years ago about what kind of guy Assad is, and we want him out. The US for some odd reason wants Syria to be just like Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan. Why exactly is a mystery to me, because those places are a friggin mess. Wesley Clark's interview claiming 7 countries in 5 years seems to be correct with the exception of the time frame. This was after the war with Afghanistan started.
“This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven
countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon,
Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
Let's go down the list
Iraq - Destabilized and currently 60% controlled by ISIS
Syria - Destabilized and currently 40% controlled by ISIS
Libya - Failed and 100% controlled by ISIS (everything else is in chaos)
Somolia - Destabilized (has not been stable for over a decade) controlled largely by ISIS loyal
Sudan - Destabilized (has not been stable for over a decade, split into 2 countries in 2011 both unstable today) Extremist Militant States, affiliations with ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Iran - Stable
(I use the phrase "ISIS loyal" which take a bit of linking. The extremists, especially Al-Shabab claim allegiance to al-Qaeda, who have close ties and agreements with ISIS.)
The only thing I can think of here is possibly "Order from Chaos", but I can't see how order would ever be implemented without a full scale invasion.
Hypocrisy: US hypocrisy regarding foreign dictators is generating even more enemies. Saudi Arabia is a US ally, in fact when their King died not too long ago there was nothing but praise for him and the Saudi Arabian Monarchy. Saudi Arabia has zero Religious freedom. If you were to smuggle a Bible into that country you would be arrested and face death as your punishment. If you don't pray at the prescribed times, you will be arrested. If you blog that you don't like the policy, you will be arrested. Punishments for crime range from stoning to death and crucifixion to public whippings, like the thousand lashes a blogger was sentenced to near the same time the Kind died. If a woman is caught driving she faces public whipping, and women can not have a job without a male's permission (which can be revoked without notice)
So tyrannical rule is okay I guess, as long as you claim to play for the US team. Until of course the US changes it's mind like happened with Syria.
Troops won't fix a broken foreign policy and double standards. Troops won't fix policies that create enemies by harming a populace much more than helping it.
The Fix
Foreign policy must be stable and consistent. If we claim to want liberty and democracy we must either demand it and enforce it unilaterally, or just within our borders.
I'll vote for the latter.
Iraq and Afghanistan posed no credible threat to US soil, and neither does Syria, ISIL, or any other country being portrayed as a bogey man in the Middle East. They posses no navy that could reach our shores, no air power to race through our skies, and lack the logistics required to invade. Most of those countries could hold their border, but that's about it.
Maybe it's time to revert foreign policy to match the purpose of the Military our founders envisioned. Protecting US soil. If an evil dictator like Hitler comes about we have technology today we lacked in WW II. We would see troops massing, navies and planes being built, and at that point could make a decision about taking military action on foreign soil.
Write your representatives and demand change. If they ignore you, boot them out of office with your vote and start getting people into office that do listen to their constituents. Your voice matters, so make it heard!
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