"...the risks of escalation are enormous. The biggest proponent of an American invasion is the Islamic State itself. The provocative videos, in which a black-hooded executioner addresses President Obama by name, are clearly made to draw America into the fight. An [U.S.] invasion would be a huge propaganda victory for jihadists worldwide ... they all believe that the United States wants to embark on a modern-day Crusade and kill Muslims." -- Graeme Wood in the Atlantic Magazine, March 2015.
ISIS desperately needs to draw the U.S. in, to provide a rallying cry "against the foreign invader." Why should America put our troops in harm's way to provide this terrorist organization with new life, especially since armies in the region are stepping up to take the fight to ISIS?
In the AUMF, the president wants language that provides for U.S. ground forces to have "flexibility." Read: "Boots on the ground!" If Congress passes the AUMF, it will have no say in the conduct of this war, except for appropriations.
- The U.S. could get drawn into a worldwide religious war.
President Obama says, "We are not at war against Islam." Congressional approval of the president's request for the AUMF against the Islamic State will change that quickly. The AUMF will become a powerful recruiting tool for ISIS. How else will it be interpreted abroad, other than America at war with Islam? The U.S. could blunder into a complex, multidimensional conflict with explicit religious overtones, no matter what the president says.
ISIS wants to draw the U.S. into a religious war, to secure its role as the self-proclaimed defender of Islam against crusading foreign invaders.
Jihadis, anticipating a great war for Islam, have streamed into the region from all over the world to join ISIS ranks. An estimated 20,000 fighters from 90 nations have converged to fight alongside ISIS.
"This is a fight the Islamic State should be denied. And yet we should have learned that it is a bad idea to get into a ground war with people whose idea of victory is martyrdom." -- Richard Cohen in the Washington Post, Feb. 23, 2015.
- ISIS and Al Qaeda are divided. US re-entry into war could unite them.
ISIS and Al Qaeda are in a deep rift. ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri differ on strategy, tactics, methods, religious interpretations and on Baghdadi's establishment of a caliphate.
An all-out U.S. military attack against ISIS will force Al Qaeda into an alliance it does not want, to join ISIS in a "fight against Western invaders," creating a united front much stronger and more deadly to America and her allies.
- A Solution: Follow ISIS' money, and shut it down.
Where is ISIS getting its money? Up to 100,000 ISIS fighters are funded by Gulf State donors, identified in the past as being from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait. Fully equipping and providing for one modern combat-ready soldier can cost $850,000 to $1,000,000 a year. ISIS' army could be gaining $85 billion to $100 billion a year from various sources. We can either commit the U.S. military to another war, and the U.S. to further risk of impending attacks through the genesis of a new crusade, or we can fight this threat with intelligent power and high technology.
The administration must identify the specific sources of ISIS' money, the individuals, the nations and the means of transfer, and shut them all down. It must sanction countries and individuals, tie up their bank accounts and commercial activities, freeze their assets and cancel their credit cards. Send platoons of accountants from the Treasury Department and the IRS into the fray, not platoons of U.S. soldiers. The U.S. must track oil sales, sales of antiquities and other valuables. Anyone involved in any transactions of any kind with ISIS must be identified and sanctioned.
- Solution: Cyber response.
The U.S. has the ability to identify and disrupt terror networks using digital technology. The CIA, in a major reorganization, has just created a fifth directorate, the Directorate of Digital Innovation, in recognition that intelligent power means using the most technologically advanced tools available. For its part, the NSA, which has admitted gaps, is also strengthening its information collecting. If, as Clausewitz said, "War is the continuation of politics by other means," in the 21st century we have other means to avoid a "boots on the ground" shooting war.
- Endless wars enable Washington to ignore a domestic agenda.
It has been said that others attack us in order to destroy the way we live. Since 9/11, our own government has been responsible for shredding the Constitution through wars of choice and the imposition of a national security state with a permanent state of emergency.
The U.S. now spends about $1 trillion a year to "defend" America using lethal means. Yet the more money we spend, the greater the peril. Why? Meanwhile, at home, America's middle class is falling apart, wages and benefits have dropped, retirement savings have vanished and Wall Street and war profiteers clean up. Americans, punished through unwarranted, massive surveillance, have forfeited constitutional rights and civil liberties. The right to privacy, which is protected by the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, has been destroyed in the name of security.
- The time has come for the U.S. to review the effects of interventionism.
ISIS grew out of U.S. interventions. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria have disintegrated into chaos and violence. The price tag has been extraordinary in loss of human life and the cost of trillions of dollars. Bad judgments, misinformation and even lies have caused our nation to intervene, inspiring radical elements, stoking the fires of nationalism and engendering religious conflict. A great price has been paid and continues to be paid by our troops and their families.
This is the time for Congress and the administration to rethink the failed national security strategy, the failed doctrine of intervention, the failed "right to protect" doctrine and the abominable intrusion into the private lives of Americans.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
8
7
6
