Jack Seaman: America Cannot Solve Middle Eastern Terrorism
Broken windows seen at the scene of explosions at Zaventem airport near Brussels, Belgium, March 22, 2016. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir
Our collective thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families of the bombings in Brussels, Belgium that Islamic State has now claimed responsibility for. President Obama has called for “the world to unite” to fight terrorism and there is little doubt that cries for the U.S. to step up military action against IS in Iraq and Syria will follow.
I agree that the world must work together to ultimately defeat terrorism, but repeating the same failed military actions and foreign policy strategy will only work against us. So far, the U.S. has spent somewhere around $9 Billion dollars in the fight against IS and nearly $2 Trillion since 2001 in the war on terror with very little security, if any, to show for it.
It is time for the Administration and Congress to stop taking refuge in the failed illusion that intervention in the Middle East will be successful in efforts to stop terrorism and to end the wishful thinking that it will be confined to that region. The blowback is now global.
[mks_pullquote align=”right” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#ffffff” txt_color=”#000000″]It is time for the Administration and Congress to stop taking refuge in the failed illusion that intervention in the Middle East will be successful in efforts to stop terrorism and to end the wishful thinking that it will be confined to that region. The blowback is now global.[/mks_pullquote]
A strategy of military action might make sense if the number of terrorists were finite, but it’s not. New recruits are being being attracted at an alarming pace, helped by every interventionist bullet fired, bomb dropped, or (collateral damage heavy) drone strike that is carried out.
It is time for the U.S. and our allies abroad to understand that no amount of warfare can bring a peaceful democracy to a region still fighting centuries old religious and civil wars. Never mind the fact that deficit spending funded wars compile mountains of debt that Congress continues to ignore, burdening future generations with our fiscal mistakes.
True security for America can be obtained through ending our costly interventions around the globe, vastly downsizing our worldwide military imprint, bringing the troops home and focusing on border security, immigration security and diligent intelligence on visa overstays, of which there were nearly 500,000 last year alone.
America is the world’s greatest military power and we should remain as such. By focusing on smart national defense and security strategies and spending, we can attain our goals of peace, security, and proper care of our brave veterans.
