Terror in Paris

The World has been in a stage of near constant conflict in recent history.  In the 1930’s and 40’s it was with Germany and Japan.  The Cold War dominated geopolitics for almost 50 years after World War II ended.  In the 1990’s we saw the rise of Islamic Extremism/Terrorism.  Since the 9/11 attacks we have been focused on combating terrorism.  The United States has taken part of most of the combat aspect of fighting terror until recently.

After 9/11 we attacked Afghanistan seeking to bring Bin Laden and Al Qaeda to justice.  Today, Al Qaeda has been significantly weakened.  Unfortunately our blunder invading Iraq has further destabilized the region.  As a result our nation and the rest of our allies have been wary about sending troops into another war in the Middle East.  Several weeks ago, some of that has changed.  On November 13^th France was attacked by ISIS, killing over 100 people and wounding many others.  France has since gone on the attack bombing ISIS bases in Syria.

Parts of the world are united in the fight against ISIS.  The main concern I have now are how will U.S. and France Respond?  After we were attacked at Pearl Harbor part of our response was to set up Internment camps.  After 9/11 we passed the Patriot Act and invaded Iraq.  I have not been impressed by some people response to the attacks in Paris.  Governors across the U.S. are trying to block Syrian refugees from settling in their states.  France has committed to taking in Syrian refugees following the attack on their country.  Accepting refugees is the right thing to do.  People also need to consider that if we send refugees back that some of them will join ISIS if they have no one else to turn to.  How we respond domestically to terror can be as crucial as how respond militarily to terror.

ISIS like Al Qaeda before them are not just a threat to the United States and our coalition, they are a threat to the world.  The world needs to understand the mistakes of the past.  War is not won or lost on the battlefield alone.  The reason part of Iraq are now run by ISIS are because we left with a military solution but no political will.  The soldiers of the Iraqi army that we trained dropped their weapons and ran when ISIS approached even though ISIS was easily outnumbered.  The Iraqi army that we spent billions to train fell because they felt ignored by their own Prime Minister al-Maliki.  To defeat ISIS we need a coalition of nations that will commit to defeating ISIS militarily and politically otherwise they will come back.