This is yet another video from The Young Turks I thought well worth reblogging. It’s their main anchor, Cenk Uygur, giving his suggestions for how America and the world should respond to ISIS massacre of innocent civilians in Paris. Uygur notes that countries across the world have condemned the terror attacks, including Iran and Hamas. He states that we should respond with great wrath and justice against the perpetrators of this atrocity. But we have to be smart as well as wrathful.
He states that while many people, including himself, believed the invasion of Afghanistan was the appropriate response to 9/11, the invasion of Iraq wasn’t. We invaded the wrong country, destabilised it, and lost about 5,000 men and women in the process. We can’t invade it again, because we invaded it the first time, and that didn’t work out.
We also can’t invade Syria. The country is a mess of fighting factions. Who would America be fighting against? Assad and the Islamists, at the same time? It looks like it. So invading that country is also out of the question.
Bombing also isn’t an option. America and her allies have dropped hundreds of bombs on Iraq, and that has not stopped ISIS. Instead, the killing of innocent civilians has only strengthened them.
At the same time, we should not ignore the terror attack and do nothing, abandoning the victims of ISIS’ brutality in the Middle East, and concentrating on the terror attacks that will continue to happen at home.
Uygur’s solution is to use special forces in tactical raids against their leaders. He notes the success of SEAL Team 6 in killing bin Laden, and the way American special forces were also able to assassinate and abduct leading terrorists in Somalia, from whom the West got valuable information. He makes clear that this has to be done as part of an international coalition, including the Saudis and Jordanians. And he also makes very clear that this won’t be able. It’ll be difficult, and we’ll lost a lot of people. He states there are no rainbows with this option. But it is, in his opinion, the appropriate response to the terror, one which uses brains and wrath.
Uygur’s background is Turkish Muslim, although he’s an atheist. He’s therefore got a better understanding of Middle Eastern politics and society than many of the politicos now sounding off. I’m not saying his suggestion is correct, or the only correct one, but he’s right about the toxic and counterproductive effects of bombing and further invasion of these nations. And he is also, absolutely right about the need to build a global coalition against ISIS. Without it, ISIS will continue to claim, spuriously, that they are protecting Muslims against attack by the evil West. We cannot allow them to do that.
Corbyn and most of the British public are opposed to bombing Syria, despite Cameron’s and the government’s eagerness to send the planes in. This video confirms that in contrast to our leaders, Corbyn and the British public are right. Whatever we do, we need a better policy than bombing innocents, as Cameron wants. This will simply fuel radicalisation both in the Middle East, and of marginalised British Muslims over here.
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