We Have Some Hard Choices Facing Us
I wish the world wasn’t so troubled. I wish everyone could find a way to peacefully coexist. Sadly, as we watch one horrible thing on television after another, we know that it takes both sides involved in a conflict working to craft a peaceful solution. Both sides have to want peace equally.
What is particularly horrifying is watching the death and destruction heaped upon the war-weary average citizen in Iraq. President Obama saying the US was leaving didn’t make the killing stop. In fact, our leaving has only made it worse. The vacuum we created when we packed up and came home was then filled by an army of monsters. We can argue all day long why we should have never invaded Iraq…and we can equally argue the circumstances why we left…but it is pointless now. Colin Powell was right when he pointed out that Iraq was like breaking a vase in a pottery shop. Once you break it, you own it. Sadly, Powell’s comments don’t just pertain to Iraq anymore. We tipped the scales in Egypt, Libya, Syria, and others. We helped topple dictators, only to have them replaced by governments equally as bad.
What we are watching on our television screens is way beyond politics. To try to assess blame now is like taking the time to try and figure out who set fire to your house, instead of calling the fire department.
I understand that our country is war-weary. We have been involved in fighting these terrorists for decades now. Unfortunately, our enemies have been at war with others or themselves for centuries. We thought that killing the head of the snake would cause the snake to die. We now know there are all sorts of poisonous snakes throughout the world lying in wait to spew their venom. Sadly, killing Ben Laden only reduced their numbers by one
It’s time for the entire world to condemn the violence going on right now in Syria and Iraq. I am encouraged that President Obama referred to ISIS as a cancer that needs to be eradicated. I am encouraged by headlines stating that the United States is trying to assemble a world-wide response to fight this modern-day barbarism.
What encourages me the most that there may be hope to end this blood bath, is the fact that Muslim spiritual leaders are now condemning this needless slaughter. Imams in the UK, and Egypt, and other places around the globe are saying that ISIS does not represent the values and beliefs of Islam. Their speaking out publically was desperately needed.
The other day the King of Saudi Arabia spoke out against the threat of terrorism spreading to Europe and the US. While it great he gave us the warning, I tend to agree with a point George Will, a political columnist, made on a Sunday talk show; the Arab world needs to fight this threat too. It is not up to America to continually spill our blood while so many Arab nations sit on the sidelines. Most of these terrorists grew up being fed hatred in these very same Arab countries. Unless these countries eradicate this fanatical hatred from within…those terrorists we kill, will simply be replaced with another group of terrorists.
It is time for everyone to put aside political correctness, and deal with this situation head on. As much as we would like it to all just go away…deep in our hearts we know the truth. It will not go away on its own. Using President Obama’s analogy of ISIS being a cancer, for someone to sit at home pretending they are well…all the while their symptoms are telling them they need to see a doctor…will ultimately lead to that person’s death. So it is with what is happening in a sandy and hot land we might think is so far away.
I wrote a blog a few weeks ago about our southern border being so porous that we had no idea who was entering our country. Couple that with the fact that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of middle class kids from around the world joining ISIS…and it isn’t too hard to see that we may have another 9/11 just waiting to happen.
History has a way of repeating itself. The world wished for peace after the bloodbath of World War I…so they appeased Hitler by allowing him to take bits and pieces of geography. We all know that Hitler wasn’t satisfied. He took the world’s reaction to his aggression as a sign of weakness…that the world had had enough of war to not push back. ISIS now occupies a third of Iraq and Syria. They look at the world’s lack of a response as a sign of weakness too.
I will leave you with this quote from Winston Churchill…An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
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