by Jack Lee
A Fight Between Good and Evil…
1836 – The outcome of a war is often determined by the strength of the cause than the strength of the military. The breakaway republic of Texas was outnumbered and outgunned by the Mexican Army. But, this was a fight for independence, to be free of corrupt Mexican rule and to be part of a great cause for long lasting good.
Fast forward to 2015 – ISIS soldiers take Ramadi despite being outnumbered and outgunned by Iraq’s American trained army. I know…Sam Huston would be rolling over in his grave if he knew I’m using the war to free Texas as an example why ISIS is winning. So I hope you will forgive this
comparison, because we all know the conduct in war between Texans and ISIS is not even remotely comparable, but some of the recruitment and motivational reasons are.
The similar or shared factors are, in no particular order of importance:
- Because they believe it’s the right thing to do – the latter based on their fundamentalist ISIS religious beliefs.
- Because it’s daring, its risky, but the rewards exceed the risk.
- Because it’s what all their friends are doing and their friends need them!
- Because it’s romantic to be part of something bigger than yourself…you are making history.
- Because it sounds like an action challenge — has an appeal to kids today that like playing “Call of Duty!”
- Because it’s their solemn duty, in the case of ISIS, as they are told by their religious leaders.
- Because it’s an honor — and they (ISIS) believe they can return to a changed world, that they helped to change — heroes.
A CNN reporter interviews a 16 year old Muslim in England: “There is a lot of quite serious chat about ISIS and going to do your part in the war for your brothers and Allah and all that. I’m not gonna lie. You can’t ignore it or say you’re not interested, because you get enough s***. It’s like a way to prove not just that you’re a proper Muslim, but a proper man.”
His friend Kasim, 16, concurs: “I respect all my brothers going out to fight. And my sisters. They are playing their part too. It is something you talk about. The media makes them out to be like, these crazy people brainwashed by crazy people, but that’s not how we (his own group of peers) think about it all. We have so much love and respect for them.”
One 17-year-old, Farzana (female), said,: “I had a massive row with two of my best friends who were talking about going over to Iraq to fight. They talked about it like it was going to be a fun holiday. They said I was a bad Muslim and friend. We don’t speak now.”
On the other side of this war for the hearts and minds of Iraqi’s is a faltering professional army, poorly led and poorly paid. They are mostly Shia tasked to fight in Sunni territory and liberate Sunni’s from ISIS madmen. So far, they are not seeing any compelling reasons why they should.
Here are the comments from Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister: “The Iraqi army’s willingness to let Ramadi fall to ISIS “surprised all of us,” Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq told reporters on Monday. “It’s not clear for us why such a unit, which was supposed to be trained by the Americans for years, and supposed to be one of the best units in the army, would withdraw from Ramadi in such a way. This is not the army that we are willing to see or we are expecting to see.”
Al-Mutlaq, a Sunni who leads his own party and often criticizes Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, spoke with CNN’s Frederik Pleitgen on “Amanpour,” a day after scathing criticism of the Iraqi military by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter.
“They were not outnumbered, in fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force. And yet they failed to fight; they withdrew from the site!”
You don’t need a crystal ball to see where this is headed. Unless the situation changes radically and quickly, we’re looking at redefining Iraq’s borders and quite possibly part of Syria too. Are you ready to put American boots on the ground again or is this going to be a write-off, another failure of Obama’s foreign policy? Tough call isn’t it? Because whichever way you lean you can find many compelling reasons to go or to stay. Every action carries with it the possibility of unintended consequences, and it definitely carries a high cost!
Right now the prevailing opinion is we ought to stay out of it, this is not our fight. This war has devolved into a sectarian battle between Sunni and Shia, even though it didn’t start out that way. Sectarianism has complicated this fight beyond Westerner’s ability to comprehend and this is why most Americans would rather just sit this one out, even with the risks to our national security and the prospects of ISIS destabilizing the entire Middle East.
If there is a glimmer of light here, its that history has shown that Sunni v Shiite battles tend to rage for only a short bloody time and then they burn themselves out and life goes on. ISIS is but a new twist on an ages old struggle.
Sources:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-32017915
http://warontherocks.com/2015/02/iraq-after-the-islamic-state-politics-rule/
http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/25/world/iraq-amanpour-pleitgen-mutlaq/index.html
Interesting to re-watch Lawrence of Arabia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud1zpHW3ito
Yes it is RHT447! Did so a few weeks back.
Apparently the Iraqi army is also fraught with feuding within, Sunni v Shiite, making a concerted effort against ISIS difficult if not impossible.
What could make all this turmoil happen? Dick Cheney says it well here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YENbElb5-xY
And then we have Obama weakening our military by purging almost 200 officers, and destroying the moral of our soldiers. If he had been our leader when our country was founded we’d be under England’s rule today and Texas would belong to Mexico.
Obama Purging the Military – 197 Officers in 5 Years:
“A baffling trend is underway and many in the military believe they know why. As reported by the Blaze and Breitbart, many are expressing their disdain and theories but one cannot deny the fact that Obama is purging the military. Here is some more proof and a video. The Blaze said this a few days ago about nine more officers recently purged:
“Nine senior commanding generals have been fired by the Obama administration this year, leading to speculation by active and retired members of the military that a purge of its commanders is underway.
Retired generals and current senior commanders that have spoken with TheBlaze say the administration is not only purging the military of commanders they don’t agree with, but is striking fear in the hearts of those still serving.
The timing comes as the five branches of the U.S. armed forces are reducing staff due to budget cuts, and as U.S. troops are expected to withdraw from Afghanistan next year.
“I think they’re using the opportunity of the shrinkage of the military to get rid of people that don’t agree with them or not tow the party line. Remember, as (former White House chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel said, never waste a crisis,” a senior retired general told TheBlaze on the condition of anonymity because he still provide services to the government and fears possible retribution. (Read the rest here.)
There are statutory limits on how many command and flag staff officers can be in the military’s five branches at any given time so this kind of turn over really impacts the active officers’ corps. “Toe the line, or goodbye” seems to be the new mantra. A quick look at Wikipedia on the subject shows the actual limits, but now, someone has had to be very busy on this subject alone to keep their site current.
Here at SUA, we are not perplexed because we saw the ‘tea leaves’ long ago, heard the grape vine talk, and reported on it repeatedly in recent years. MG Vallely, our Chairman at SUA and our friends, family and network are fuming. Obama is destroying our military in favor of “his military”.
http://www.standupamericaus.org/breaking-news/obama-purging-the-military-197-officers-in-5-years/
Army morale low despite 6-year, $287M optimism program:
“More than half of some 770,000 soldiers are pessimistic about their future in the military and nearly as many are unhappy in their jobs, despite a six-year, $287 million campaign to make troops more optimistic and resilient, findings obtained by USA TODAY show.
Twelve months of data through early 2015 show that 403,564 soldiers, or 52%, scored badly in the area of optimism, agreeing with statements such as “I rarely count on good things happening to me.” Forty-eight percent have little satisfaction in or commitment to their jobs.
Retired vice admiral Norb Ryan, head of the Military Officers Association of America, and Joyce Raezer, executive of the National Military Family Association, said the results are not surprising. Fourteen years of war and recent decisions to downsize or cut funding for the military have left morale low, they said.
A recent survey by the Military Times and a Navy Retention Study also show troops increasingly unhappy.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2015/04/16/army-survey-morale/24897455/
Re #3: Oh yeah, Cheney made the Middle East boil and an army of monkeys nightly fly out of Dewey’s vacuole.
Remember Obama’s “red line” on Syria?
Off Topic: Interesting read.
Progressives, Huckabee and a cup of Joe —
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/418902/mike-huckabees-candidacy-recalls-progressive-giants-yesteryear-jonah-goldberg
Huckabee may well have been called a progressive in the early 1900s. Today, the term is “theocrat.”
His continued embrace of the Duggar family–after finding out that they let their daughters’ sexual abuser stay in the home, then subjected their recently victimized daughters to the pressures of reality television–is his most disgusting move yet, and should disqualify him from any position of influence ever.
Not a fan of Huckabee, but I won’t judge him. I’ll leave that up to bigots like Chris who should be disqualified.
Pie is right–if there is anyone whose behavior we should never ever judge, it is people on our own side of the political spectrum.
Everyone else is fair game.
Also, I like that comparing gay people to pedophiles is just fine, but objecting to those comparisons is bigotry. What a world.
Pie calling Chris a Bigot is like The robber baron calling the serf a king
Israel costs us too much money and they are branding here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNVUaxG3WMo