Our View: Obama is right to resist the fear mongers
Some people believe that to show solidarity with France requires violent denunciations, threats of violence and angry outrage. While many of us feel that way, it is better that our leaders not indulge in such theatrics. They have work to do.
That’s why it’s easy to dismiss the criticisms of President Barack Obama for being too cool in addressing the attacks. Instead of anger, he has defended his strategy for confronting the Islamic State, as he did Monday. What it lacks in outrage, it offers in grim determination – the kind of determination we will need to carry this battle forward.
It is the same grim determination we saw when the president promised to hunt down and kill Osama bin Laden. We would remind those who call the president ineffectual how that turned out.
That said, more American might could be needed to win this fight. We cannot shirk from our stature and our duty as the world’s leading democracy. If a coalition is being built to satisfy the demands for justice rising from France and Beirut and Moscow, America should be at the forefront. Not because we are the world’s cop and not because we fear we could be next. But because our nation is uniquely positioned to lead in this matter.
Yes, the president’s critics are correct; he failed to appreciate the severity of this threat. For too long he discounted the potential of ISIS’s savagery. For where we are today, the president is right: It would be a mistake to send tens of thousands of U.S. troops to root out militants in Syria. They would succeed, but it would require another occupation to keep ISIS out. Further, it would validate the ISIS fantasy that the United States is involved in a 21st Century crusade, allowing ISIS or their ilk to arise again in Libya or Yemen or, worse, southeast Asia. Would we send troops to all those places as well?
That said, the president must remain open to the possibility that a greater military commitment could be necessary to end this existential threat.
Regardless, it’s important to know that Islamic State is not a state; it is a fractured, sick ideology spewed by sociopaths who prey on the insecurities of disaffected youth. It smuggles oil and mugs people to make ends meet. And it kills more Muslims than it does those of other faiths.
As Imam Ahmad Kayello of Modesto put it during a vigil for the victims, “Terrorism has no faith; terrorism has no religion.” We count on the Imam and others to press this message forcefully among the youth of their culture.
Islamic State’s choice to target a western nation on Friday was merely strategic. Its leaders want to drag the United States and its allies into a war they believe will be resolved in some sort of doomsday scenario, from which their caliphate will arise.
Because he does not want to play into Islamic State’s hands, Obama intends to intensify his strategy, not change it. He points to recent successes, such as the airstrikes that killed “Jihadi John,” the pscyhopath who beheaded Western hostages, and another Islamic State leader. Obama stressed victory will take a coalition of nations. In that coalition must be Muslim allies such as Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
In Turkey on Monday, Obama was most passionate about the plight of Syrian refugees, fleeing these same killers. “Slamming the door in their faces would be a betrayal of our values,” he said. We prefer his compassion to the reactionary politics of those already stoking our fears and insisting we bar those doors.
If America is attacked, it will be all the more important not to let our emotions override our nerve. When the people of Paris, of Raqqa, of Beirut of Moscow are victims, we too are already victims of terrorism.
This story was originally published November 16, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Our View: Obama is right to resist the fear mongers."