The Islamic State is the gravest threat to U.S. security since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It’s not a question of if these ruthless militants move against American interests; it’s a question of when.
The Islamic State is the gravest threat to U.S. security since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. It’s not a question of if these ruthless militants move against American interests; it’s a question of when.
Members of this virulent strain of terrorism have raped women, murdered those who refused to convert to radical Islam and sent whole groups of people on the run. Their brutal methods, including the beheading of two American journalists, are sadistic. And because hundreds of misguided young Europeans and Americans have joined these 21st-century barbarians, there is a very real risk of newly fledged terrorists returning to their homelands to kill.
Yet even given all these facts, it’s wise for President Barack Obama to move carefully against the Islamic State. The president signaled last week that the United States had no immediate plans to bomb targets in Syria, which would be a major escalation of American involvement. That may be necessary — as many military experts believe — but the president needs to understand his options fully before making such a choice.
Obama has used U.S. power to halt the militants’ drive to dominate Iraq. A series of carefully targeted airstrikes helped rescue victims of Islamic State atrocities on an Iraqi mountaintop and saved a key dam near Mosul. Obama recently authorized surveillance of Islamic State movements in Syria, which suggests he is considering attacks.
Obama’s critics, mostly Republicans, are urging him to move faster. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is in a fight for his political life this fall against Democrat Alison Grimes, said Obama should “use the full extent of his authorities to attack this enemy force.”
Really? Boots on the ground, senator? Is the American public ready for an invasion of Syria?
In an unfortunate moment during a presidential news conference, Obama said: “We don’t have a strategy yet” for a Syrian intervention, a comment that exploded on social media and led to more derision from the right and fed the impression that Obama is indecisive and afraid to use American power.
The fact of the matter is that this president has used American military power wisely. He’s careful and deliberative — yes, sometimes overly so. But he’s not about to act like the gunslinger president who formerly occupied the White House and whose impertinent decisions led directly to the dilemma this nation now faces in confronting the Islamic State. Absent the Iraq war, would the United States be in this situation? We doubt it.
The president should take his time and get right any strategy to counter the Islamic State.
— From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel