By Sal Bommarito
The disgraceful and inefficacious response to the ISIS threat has led to an unfortunate worldwide phenomenon. Thousands of disenfranchise and unhappy young people have found a cause celebre. It is an opportunity to stick it to all those who have ignored the needs and dreams of the discontented and made their lives intolerable.
When Barack Obama decided to finally enter the ISIS conflict, he indicated that the U.S. would only drop bombs and advise ground combatants from other countries. He must know that effective ground support is critical to defeating this enemy, and most enemies for that matter. Yet, the president said the U.S. would fight from 20,000 feet and train others to do the work on the battlefields. This has been and continues to be a huge strategic mistake, if for no other reason than it allowed ISIS to build itself into a mythical powerhouse in the deserts of Iraq and Syria.
The rag tag army has minimal command and control and no heavy weapons. Yet, it is defeating local forces regularly. ISIS employs the cruelest tactics to build its reputation, recruit new fighters and terrorize all those with different ethnicities and religious preferences. Young people have been impressed by ISIS’ courage in standing up to western and Arab forces. For them, it must a great experience to have to have women and children grovel at their feet and to murder them.
The regimes in surrounding Middle East countries have done little to ensure that the marauders are stopped. Arab leaders are frightened by radical elements in their own countries, so they joined the hapless U.S coalition with little fanfare and even less manpower. Now, the “ISIS Spring” is far more powerful than the Arab Spring. Sovereign nations are being overthrown right before our eyes and many others are threatened by lone wolves who transport death and destruction to innocents in the Middle East and throughout the world.
The ISIS threat could not have been handled any worse by current world leaders. The potential of ISIS was totally underestimated and further, world leaders still have not responded with greater force after seeing the potential of this terrorist group. The greatest blame falls on the U.S., which should have acted alone to stop the ISIS incursion. If the U.S. had relied upon others to deal with the growing threat of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks, the terrorists would have thrived and done much more damage to the free world. George W. Bush recognized the potential of Al Qaeda and attacked killing thousands of dangerous terrorists in the process.
The Afghan saga is different than the ISIS adventure because the U.S. did not step up and deal with the terrorists in a more confrontational manner. The president took the easy way out, but it has not been effective. Bombing alone will not defeat ISIS; his generals have told him this repeatedly. And now, ISIS is a mythical tsunami as it fights against the greatest nations in the world.
In Paris, millions gathered to show solidarity against the interlopers and their imported form of terrorism. The extremists must have been laughing as all the people tried to be brave while their leaders locked arms and spoke tough words. What should have occurred was the planning of a new ground force initiative against ISIS to put the rabid dog to sleep. Oh, but I forgot, the U.S. was too busy to attend so no such meeting took place, other than those by the global murderers planning the next sneak attack on a peaceful country.
What our leaders don’t seem to recognize is that the things happening today are interrelated. Western countries have allowed lone wolves to travel freely across their borders. They have formed sleeper cells preparing to attack the helpless. The same countries allow citizens to travel to Syria and Yemen to be trained to carry out attacks. All the while, in the interest of political correctness, western countries placate Muslims, even though their organizations are either directly or indirectly involved with murderous attacks. The U.S. does not even call the current activity “radical Islamic terrorism.” Why are we so delicate with those who may be fomenting violent actions against us? This is not to say that all Muslims are anti-American. But many of the problems in recent years have evolved from the most radical elements of Islam.
And finally, the humanitarian problem is growing exponentially. Millions of refugees and displaced Arabs are in jeopardy. ISIS is creating thousands more refugees every day. Yet, the U.S. continues to respond to ISIS benignly.