Afghanistan

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Fighting for Justice

Then his lord summoned him and said to him, `You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’ (Matthew 18: 32-35).

No one will say it, but human rights could be the real basis for fighting ISIS, not the pretended threat to American citizens. At the same time, we ignore human rights at the peril of our own people. The rise of Al-Qaida from an unstable region shows that the abuse of human rights is not local, but international.

Al-Qaida delivered its sucker punch to the Twin Towers in 2011 from an outpost where it might have been safely ignored till that moment in 2001.  It was defined as a terrorist organization based on that attack, but its manifesto already had condemned the West and declared jihad with ruthless disregard for human life. It was prepared to do whatever was necessary to spread its version of Islam.

Since then the United States has found allies against such brutality. NATO moved into Afghanistan, governments in Yemen, Somalia, and Iraq have invited American intervention against terrorist armies. Even Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have supported military goals in Syria and Iraq.  The lines between Sunni and Shia have blurred in the face of a ruthless, unprincipled enemy.

Certainly every nation has its own political agenda, but it is almost unimaginable that the political agendas of all of the stakeholders surrounding Iraq could coincide. There must be one other motive: human rights. An army which spreads its religion by coercion and brutality is anathema to all. The universal revulsion at the beheadings of two American journalists was not politically inspiring.  It was the sheer disregard for justice and decency that inspired a coalition of the willing.

Human rights is both the highest and most entangled motive for war. If human rights were the first principle of U.S. military intervention, our armies would be scattered into every nook and cranny.  And yet, what better reason to intervene in the tribal battles that divide and terrorize nations, but to defend justice and protect minorities? The image of U.S. helicopters rescuing a persecuted people from a mountaintop could not help but make American citizens proud. That is the image we wish to preserve during the complicated counter-terrorism in Iraq and Syria.

And armies will doubtlessly harm the innocent and commit their own atrocities in a declared war, so it is not always the high ground we claim. But the alternative, to let a brutal perversion of Islam conquer and coerce innocent people is unthinkable, indecent  To allow a terrorist state to spring up in the heart of the Middle East is anathema, not only to Americans, but to every political entity in the region. So a coalition for human rights is formed.

It will never be acknowledged, because it is too ill-defined and too controversial, but the drive for justice and decency will push unnatural alliances together, even the most peculiar alliance of Republican and Democrat. And though Western intelligence can not foresee danger, we will feel more secure that such inhumanity is being challenged in another part of the world. As we learned on 9/11, we are not safe from such desperation, even a world away from our border.

 

 

 

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A Time to Gather Stones Together

Our Islamic State forces are still fighting in all directions and we will not step down until the project of the caliphate is established, with the will of God. (ISIS Social Media, New York Times, August 8, 2014)

Unlike the hyperbolic chirping of Hamas or Al-Qaida these words carry the force of a relentless army, swelling the borders of Syria, Iraq and now Kurdistan. Unlike the despicable posturing of the Vladmir Putin ( preparing for war and calling it “peace-keeping”) this army makes no secret of its goals. It’s done in broad daylight. This is the most potent aggression on earth, and it must be stopped. It is time to gather the stones of opposition, regardless of previous resolutions and alliances.

If this weren’t Iraq we might have intervened to thwart aggression a long time ago. If the invaders were based in Iran, we would have taken the field immediately. Instead they have emerged from the chaos of Syria, where we could have inadvertently ( and probably have) armed them and supported their march against the tyranny of Bashar-al-Assad. If the army had overtly threatened the U.S. citizens we might have stepped in for self-defense. But this aggression has not come in under the radar.  ISIS is doing exactly what it claimed it would do. The stones cry out, the world looks on.

The United States can no longer monitor this threat dispassionately. It should organize opposition, including the Iraqi and Kurdish forces, the Arab League, NATO allies. It is in no one’s interest that this ruthless Caliphate take over the heartland of the Arabian peninsula, but if we hold back now, what ISIS has foreshadowed will follow as they predicted. Time to gather the stones of outrage. Time to take a stand.

Military attack should always be a last resort, but all other resorts are futile at this point:

  • diplomacy (no reasoning political entity exists)
  • sanctions (plundering has strengthened self-sufficiency)
  • political pressure (ISIS is accountable to no one)
  • U.N. resolutions (where does the UN rank compared to God?)
  • military threat (no credibility unless we act)

So, having resolutely disentangled ourselves from the tribal battles of Iraq and Afghanistan, we now must confront a threat that is magnitudes greater than the Taliban and Iran, a ruthless, theocratic army with the transparent and unimpeded goal to establish an intolerant religious state in the very middle of the Middle East.

Unless someone stands up and says “No!” with force, this is going to happen. All previous objections noted, the United States should offer leadership of the forces of “No.” When events prove that all earlier policies and resolutions are irrelevant, you have to act with conviction.  Nothing else will prevent ISIS from becoming the most tyrannical and intolerant  incarnation of terror in the Middle East.

A time to cast away stones . . . over . . . a time to gather stones together . . . now.