Know your enemy

The Obama Administration foreign policy is under scrutiny and criticism with events unfolding in the Middle East and across North Africa. Islamic extremism is on the rise, first by al-Qaeda and its surrogates, and now by the Islamic State. Iran is rushing toward obtaining nuclear first-strike capability with the avowed goal of “wiping Israel from the map.” Many of the ‘gains’ made by America’s sacrifice in Iraq have been thrown away. The situation in Afghanistan appears equally confused. Generally, the complaint is that the United States lacks a coherent strategy to defeat the radical elements that are overrunning 14 regional nation states. You hear this from the professional military, namely retired DIA chief General Michael Flynn and Marine Corps Professor Sebastian Gorka. President Obama has finally decided to ask Congress for an authorization to use military force (AUMF), but Congress is reluctant to pass such a resolution unless the Administration can deliver a strategy that the AUMF would support. They argue that passing an authorization without articulating a coherent unifying strategy would be tantamount to putting the cart before the horse. In a recent speech, National Security Advisor Susan Rice claimed that the Islamic State does not represent “an existential threat like Germany during World War II.” I’m not so sure that is true. Yes, ISIS is not an industrial power like Germany was in 1940, but beneath their battleground in Iraq and Libya is a strategic resource, namely oil. Much of their funding is coming from black market sales of oil from wells they have already captured. At the conclusion of World War II, the victorious Allies decided to hold accountable German and Japanese leaders whose actions led to the disastrous war and 50 million deaths. One of those charges was “crimes against humanity.” The actions of ISIS (beheadings and burning captives alive) surely rise to this level of criminal inhumanity. The president is reluctant to call our enemies ‘Islamic.’ He makes the case repeatedly that the terrorists are violating every tenant of Islamic faith, but ISIS identifies itself as the Islamic State and uses the Koran as their justification. Allied Muslim leaders like Jordan’s king refer to ISIS using the term Da’esh which is considered a derogatory label. In a recent speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, the president likened ISIS atrocities to past Christian abuses, notably the Crusades, Inquisition, slavery and Jim Crow. These events occurred many centuries and decades ago. In the meantime, the church went through a Reformation and the battle against slavery and for civil rights was strongly supported by moral Christian arguments. Maybe the president’s point is that Islam is mired a millennium behind Christianity, but I doubt that’s his argument. The president has repeatedly downplayed the threat posed by ISIS. Just a year ago, he referred to them as the “JV team.” When ISIS in Libya beheaded 21 Coptic Christians earlier this week, the Administration referred to the victims as “Egyptian citizens.” They will not concede that Christians and Jews are specifically the target of our enemies. Recall that the State Department spokesman refused to acknowledge that all of the victims at the Paris Kosher Deli massacre were Jews … which they were. And the Administration is making the case that climate change and global warming are a more serious threat to our national security than terrorism and militants like ISIS. That argument is dubious when you’re digging out from under a mountain of snow in Boston. To make matters worse, the optics of the president’s response to ISIS atrocities have been terrible. Within minutes of announcing that American journalist James Folley had been beheaded, Mr. Obama was teeing his golf ball. On the same day last week that the White House acknowledged the death of ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller, the president was making a comedy video for Vox. These actions reinforce the argument that he isn’t taking the threat seriously. My point is that it is important to know and properly identify your enemy. That is fundamental to developing a coherent strategy to defeat the Islamic State. I have a theory that a major factor in our disastrous war in Indochina was that so many of our knowledgeable foreign policy experts for that region had been purged during the McCarthy trials of the early 1950s. Failing to account for Chinese intervention nearly spelled disaster during the Korean War. I understand that the president is very sensitive to the problems created by our March 2003 invasion of Iraq. I “get” that. He campaigned very effectively in 2008 as an “anti-war” president. Conversely, many would argue that he threw away the advantage gained by the 2007 surge, and the spread of ISIS from Syria into western Iraq is the result of his hasty withdrawal. While the American people do not want to see a repeat of the Iraq war, a strong case may be made for the importance of American leadership in the fight against ISIS. Such leadership is lacking from this Administration. Postscript: Today marks the beginning of the six-week season of Lent. St. Mary’s Episcopal will honor this day with an Ash Wednesday service at 5:30. The community is cordially invited.