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Case for War Against ISIS Unmistakable
by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700
Copyright
August 24, 2014
All Rights Reserved.
Reluctant as President Barack Obama is to go back
to Iraq or open a new front in Syria, the president has little choice now that
the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria has grown to the world’s most deadly
terrorist group. Beheading
40-year-old U.S. journalist James Foley Aug. 19 sounded a gong inside Obama’s
head, after five-and-half years of dormancy in foreign wars. Obama campaigned in 2008 and 2012 on ending the U.S. roles as the world policeman. While that resonated with voters
then, the situation has changed now with Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi replacing Osama
bin Laden as the world’s most dangerous terrorist. If wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
taught anything in the wake of Sept. 11, the U.S. must be proactive in
preventing gathering threats to the U.S. homeland. Sept. 11 wouldn’t have happened had
the U.S. pre-Sept. terrorist policy matched its muscular post-Sept. 11 approach.
Battling Bashar al-Assad’s beleaguered army in remote parts of Syria,
al-Baghdadi has capitalized on seizing more strategic military bases and
facilities, completing today’s takeover of Syria’s Tabqa military airport in
Raga province. “One
hundred-and-seventy Syrian soldiers were killed on Sunday in the offensive which
led to the lSIS jihadists seizing Tabqa airport,” said the Observatory of Human
Rights, monitoring ISIS gains in Syria and Iraq.
News on ISIS’s latest advance makes the urgency of more wide U.S.
intervention inevitable. While it’s
tempting to say it’s not the U.S.’s problem, Obama now sees the urgency of
ramping up military intervention.
Urging Barack to finally take action, ranking members on the Senate Armed
Services Committee Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)
hoped recent events changed Obama’s foreign policy.
No foreign power other than the U.S. has the resources and commitment for
a global war on terror. Sept. 11
forced former President George W. Bush to go on the offensive to deal with
gathering terrorist threats. While
mistakes were made, Obama can’t ignore what’s happening on his watch. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel and
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey said the U.S. has never
faced a more dangerous threat to U.S. national security than ISIS. Unlike Bin Laden who bought his way
into save havens in rogue states, al-Baghdadi has seized sovereign land by
military force in Iraq, Syria and parts of Jordan. While no one wants to see American
troops die in foreign lands, there’s a time-and-place for U.S. military
intervention to defend national security.
Allowing al-Baghdadi to consolidate power in Iraq and Syria would
destabilize the region.
When al-Baghdadi seized Iraq’s second largest city oil-rich Mosul in the
Kurdish controlled North June 1, the White House knew that they had to get off
the fence. With the Kurd’s
Peshmerga fighters running out of firepower, ISIS was able to have their way in
Northern Iraq. Obama’s decision to
bypass Iraq’s Baghdad government and arm the Kurds directly gives Kurdistan
defacto recognition as an independent state, something historically opposed by
Iraq, Turkey and Iran. U.S.
strategy to drive ISIS out of Mosul and other Northern territories involves
using Peshmerga fighters to do the heavy lifting. Obama hasn’t yet admitted that the
U.S. will commit boots-on-the-ground to rid the region of ISIS. Taking over Syria’s Tabqa military
airport is another wake-up call for Obama that he needs to act urgently on ISIS. After capturing Brigade 93 and
Dvision 17 Syrian bases, ISIS has dug in.
Syria’s Raqa has been a stronghold for the ISIS, declaring the capital
Ar-Raqqah the nerve center of al-Baghadadi’s caliphate July 1. After fighting to oust al-Assad with other militant groups, including al-Qaeda’s Al-Nusra
Front, al-Baghdadi cleverly betrayed all his collaborators and seeks to go it
alone. Al-Baghdadi stole much of
the U.S. arsenal from Brig. Gen. Salim Idris of the Free Syrian Army. Idris was conned by al-Baghdadi into
believing ISIS would serve as his personal militia to eventually topple Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad. Idris—and his U.S. backers—found out the hard way that ISIS could not be trusted. Taking U.S. heavy weapons out of
Syria, the White House watched lethal U.S. hardware carve out a caliphate for
al-Baghdadi in one of the most stunning blitzkriegs in recent memory. Obama’s military advisors see no
option other than U.S. intervention in Iraq and Syria.
Obama finally got the message that only the U.S. can reverse ISIS ominous
land-grab in Iraq and Syuia.
Reluctant to recommit U.S. troops, Barack has no choice but to follow the advice
Hagel, Demsey and his GOP friends on Capitol Hill, all backing new military
action in Iraq and Syria. Unlike
Bin Laden’s replacement, 65-year-old Egyptian-born doctor Ayman al-Zawahri,
al-Baghdadi has the cunning-and-charisma to recruit jihadists from different
continents. When a former British
citizen beheaded Foley Aug. 19, he showed that ISIS appeals to Islamic fanatics
and wannabe jihadists around the globe.
“We’re absolutely aware that there are significant numbers of British
nationals involved in terrible crimes, probably commission of atrocities, “ said
British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.
U.S. and Australian officials also know that al-Baghdadi continues to
recruit foreign fighters.
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