As Iran continues to take an active role in helping Iraq fight ISIS, many
US neocons are upset that the US military is not over there on the ground doing
the fighting. They want Americans believe that only another US invasion of
Iraq - and of Syria as well - can defeat ISIS. But what is wrong with the countries
of the region getting together and deciding to cooperate on a common problem?
While the entry of Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias into ISIS-occupied areas
may not be ideal - there is bound to be revenge killings and sectarian fighting
- it is far more likely that the ISIS problem will be solved by the countries
in the region than by US bombs and ground troops. Our bombs will continue to
make the problem worse because it was our bombs that helped create the problem
in the first place. What the neocons who lied us into the Iraq war don't like
to admit is that there was no ISIS problem and no al-Qaeda problem in Iraq
and Syria before we invaded Iraq.
ISIS is an idea, not a country or an army, which is why the US declaring war
on ISIS makes no sense. It is clear that if we really want to defeat ISIS,
the last thing we should be doing is bombing and sending troops back to Iraq
and into Syria. Our bombs and involvement in the region only serve to recruit
more fighters into ISIS. To make matters worse, many of these radicalized fighters
come from Europe and even the US. What happens when they go home?
What if the US had not gotten involved with Iraq in 1990 when Saddam Hussein
went into Kuwait after getting what he thought was a green light from the first
Bush Administration? The interventionists were saying that if we did not act,
Saddam Hussein was going to take over the region and perhaps more! But what
about the other countries in the region that may have felt threatened? Maybe
Saudi Arabia would have made a move; maybe Israel would have taken care of
the problem. Why does it always have to be the US?
The dedicated neocons and other interventionists will not cheer Iran currently
taking steps to defeat ISIS even though they claim that ISIS is at this time
the number one threat to the US. Why don't they like this good news? Because
they desire the rest of the world to believe that the US is the only indispensable
nation. They want the rest of the world - and especially the American taxpayer
- to believe that no problem anywhere can be solved without US involvement.
It diminishes our prestige, they argue, for us not to take the lead in every
conflict everywhere on the globe. Perhaps if people overseas begin to see that
they can solve their own local and regional problems without the US military
involved, more Americans would come to see the neocons as the real threat to
our national - and financial - security.
Instead of being angered at Iranian help to address the problem of ISIS, perhaps
we should send them a "thank you" note.
