Added to this has been the U.S.-supported, Shiite-dominated government in Iraq that engaged in the all-too-common retribution against Sunnis after years of persecution. And, of course, there is the Syrian civil war that started with a popular, democratic protest that was violently suppressed by the Assad government, fueling a military conflict which ISIS utilized for its own ends.
Into this situation various nation-states and political organizations have entered, many of them strategic, as well as on-again/off-again allies of the U.S.A. Is such a situation resolved through a few missile strikes? A few bombardments? Perhaps a few hundred paratroopers or Special Operations units?
There are too many people in Washington, D.C.—and in the U.S. as a whole—who would have loved to have heard President Obama suggest that by merely pushing a button that the U.S. could demonstrate its leadership. Perhaps with the click of a switch the entirety of the ISIS leadership can be zapped away into the Phantom Zone? I hate to break it to you—and to Fox News—but it simply does not work that way.
When one is dealing with a criminal organization, e.g., the Mafia, or a clerical fascist organization, e.g., Al Qaeda; ISIS, the problem is not resolved at light speed, regardless of how quickly one receives information on cable news channels.
Yes, the U.S.A needs a strategy. It needs a strategy that begins with the recognition that it cannot and should not attempt to resolve global crises on its own. It needs a strategy that adopts as a truism that it must work with other countries towards regional solutions to problems that are fundamentally political rather than military. It needs a strategy that does not assume that the challenges facing this planet can be resolved as if we were playing a giant video game.
Wake up, pundits: welcome to the 21st century.
(Bill Fletcher, Jr. is the host of The Global African on Telesur-English. He is a racial justice, labor and global justice writer and activist. Follow him on Facebook and at www.billfletcherjr.com.)
About Post Author
