Valin Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 The American Interest: Chuck Freilich September 22, 2014 President Obama’s plan for dealing with ISIS is a step in the right direction, albeit one that doesn’t go far enough. That’s because ISIS is the symptom and immediate threat, not the primary problem: The Middle East is a fundamentally ill region, one that has repeatedly exported its problems to the United States and the rest of the world and will continue to do so for decades. Iran’s Islamic revolution, Saddam’s rapacious Iraq, al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, and Hamas, the slaughter in Syria, Darfur. The litany goes on. Despite the President’s repeated efforts to deny it, the bitter reality is that the West is embroiled in a normative and strategic conflict with much of the Islamic world, a conflict that it did not seek but is nonetheless underway. On the normative level, the conflict is between a West that enshrines the values of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in this life, and the fundamentalists and others, for whom much of this vision is anathema. Theirs is a vision not of life and liberty—and happiness, if it’s possible at all, is only truly available in the next life. It is a vision of the future shrouded in theocratic or authoritarian backwardness, oppression, and poverty. This normative clash is not about mushy, sentimental ideas, but about the fundamental values that will govern international life and, increasingly, our lives at home. Strategically, the conflict is between a West that seeks to promote stability and the existing order in the region, along with gradual socio-economic and political reform, and the fundamentalists who seek to overthrow the regional and international systems and to restore the era of Islamic grandeur. ISIS’ establishment of a caliphate, long written off in the West as the dream of isolated loonies, is the first step toward the realization of these visions. In one way or another—Sunni or Shi‘a, state (Iran) or non-state (ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas)—many fundamentalists share a dream of a united Muslim world regaining its place of leadership in the international community at the expense of the non-believing West. Unfortunately, the President has yet to abandon his well-meaning but misguided belief, embodied in his Cairo speech and other attempts to reach out to the Arab world early in his first term, that the West’s problems with the Arabs and parts of the broader Muslim world are a function of specific disagreements and grievances that, if rectified, would lead to significantly improved relations. In fact, the problems are far more fundamental. It’s time to realize that we are in the midst of a generational battle, and that the U.S. and West simply do not have the luxury of disengaging from the Middle East, pivoting to Asia, avoiding “stupid wars”, and just hoping for the better. To ignore this harsh reality is to invite the next ISIS—and these movements will get progressively worse. (Snip) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now