Perspective: Seeing Through a Glass Darkly

Susan Rice with the same straight face as Neville Chamberlain’s in 1938 tells us that there is no existential threat from ISSI! No existential threat means no existing threat. Have we forgotten that Bin Laden declared war on the United States in 1993 and what followed was a series of attacks on US facilities that began in the 1990’s that lasted until the 21st century when they destroyed the Twin Towers and part of the Pentagon? Have we forgotton how many American lives were lost in these attacks on US soil?

In 2003 we decided to fight back by invading Afghanistan and Iraq. We won those wars. But Obama decided to get out of Iraq in December 2011. Two years later, on December 2013, ISIS, an outgrowth of al Qaeda, began to invade Iraq from Syria forming a Caliphate that now claims territory in parts of Syria, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Armenia, South and South East Asia, Saudia Arabia and Yemen. Meantime, we have had to abandon our embassies in Syria, Libya, and now Yemen who only yesterday was considered our ally. This is not only a lot of square miles of territory, but equally important is that this region contains 70% of the world’s known oil reserves. If these reserves are taken over by ISIS, which seems almost certain, the world including Europe, China, India and ourselves will be severely harmed.

In 1938 Chamberlain did not believe that the Nazis would attack the United Kingdom, but they did. And if it were not for the United States, the Nazis would have invaded England just as they did France, and Russia. The issue was existential then, and it is existential now. Wake up Susan Rice!!!

Obama’s continuing refusal to define the terrorists as radical Islamists is unbelievable to our military specialists who state openly that you cannot defeat an enemy that you cannot or won’t define. The plan to bomb Syrian and Iraq targets and take over the territories with Arab ground troops is laughable.Counting on Arab leadership in military operations flies in the face of the world’s experience. We have decades of history of Arab military failures. But perhaps the worst example is how the Iraq army that we trained and equipped dropped their weapons and ran within days of the first ISIS attack. If this were not enough to tell us that Obama is on the wrong track, how about the three Secretaries of Defense who have resigned over this issue and the myriad of retired military generals and officers who now publicly tell us our President is taking us in the wrong direction.

Equally important, the Administration must convince the Muslim religious leaders and leaders of states that are not radical, to help in the fight to destroy the radical Islamic terrorists that are forcing the Muslim religion in the wrong direction. Obama squandered the opportunity to do this at the National Prayer breakfast when he said that the radical terrorists, who are killing any one in sight, are no worse than Christians who performed equally horrific acts centuries ago. He should have said that historically Christianity once had an evil element, but that good Christians got rid or it. We believe that the good Muslims can get rid of their evil element. The President could then have called for a world-wide meeting of Muslim religious leaders along with Muslim Country leaders who are in agreement with this goal.

So what can be done? We have two breaks that we can capitalize upon. First, the military in Egypt, led by its current President, Abdel Fattah el Sisi, has removed the radical jihadists and is speaking positively about the need to remove ISIS. Secondly, the King of Jordan stepped up air attacks on ISIS locations in Syria and Iraq and is amassing Jordanian troops on its border with Iraq. Thus, we have two key Arab states beginning to form the Alliance, and it may not be too late to save Iraq. What the US must do is provide the leadership to support and lead this insipient Arab alliance.

The World abhors a vacuum. It will be filled by the radicals or by the good. As in WWII, only the US was able to lead the good. It remains to be seen whether President Obama is up to the essential task of leading the good Muslims to eradicate this scourge as well as protecting the world’s supply of oil. Otherwise we will have to wait two years for the next President. By then it may be too late!