“ISIL is a terrorist organization pure and simple.” That is what the President said, and I realize that saying anything else in this environment is politically red-meat to Republicans and anyone else looking to score points off the President. But it is a simplistic and impossible to act upon.
.
But we, as adults, shouldn’t be limited to the sound bite pace that politicians and news media must cleave to.
.
What does that mean, terrorism pure and simple? Terrorism, despite what the 24 hour news cycle would have you believe, is a tool towards a political end. A blunt, nasty, evil tool that utilizes attacks on civilians, but a tool towards a desired end result. So what is ISIL desired end result.
.
For the moment, let’s put aside that ISIL decapitates people. I mean that is horrible and terrible, but is not really the cause for a multinational air and ground war, right? Some of our allies decapitate people. We put criminals to death all the time. Outrage is not useful here. What is their political end game – and why are we so dead set against it?
.
ISIL is trying to carve a new nation in the middle east. It is trying to take land from Syria and Iraq for this. They became a horrible enemy, which we HAD TO stating fighting, only when they took land from Iraq. When they were fighting Syria only, most nations were okay with this. So, we are not fighting ISIL because they are “intrinsically evil”, we are fighting them now because they threaten Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan.
.
 |
| I don't know who this is from, so I can't give credit, but it is nice and seems kind of USA Today-y. |
Iraqi Kurdistan is an altogether more interesting beast. Like ISIL, “Kurdistan” has been carved out of a current country and that situation was ok with most nations. In the case of the Kurds, their homeland in Iraq was basically self-sufficient. The allies supported the Kurds against Saddam Hussein, and we (the United States) have maintained this support. Support for the Kurds is NOT uniform across the region, since Syria, Iran and Turkey all have significant Kurdish minorities. So Iraqi Kurds are our (US) allies and boots on the ground, but are considered terrorists in Turkey (and were recently bombed inside Turkey).
.
The reason I bring this up is as follows. What is the end game here? Do we want to be sure that ISIL cant’ hold any territory as a government or nation? If they contain themselves to Syria, are we okay with that? I think the ISIL is an artifact of a civil war between two competing versions of Islam, Sunni and Shia. The United States (and most other countries) are locked into viewing this through the prism of current nation states and boundaries. The problem is that I don’t think there is an answer that would please us within the confines of the current nations and borders.
.
I get borders must be thought of as inviolate from outside interests, but what in the case of a civil war? If we say ISIL cannot exist, then why can Kurdistan?
.
'"And why is any of this our problem? That is a rhetorical question, by the way. I don’t think it is our problem. And, I don’t think there is a solution.