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Of course, such red meat thrown to a base that is
seemingly shaken and afraid of the unknown, is something
that a craven politico can do knowing that the fawning media
will cover such braggadocio statements and his audience will
quite literally...gobble it up.
Senator Ted Cruz, not to be outdone by the reality TV
star, gets on national media and literally dares President
Obama to come back to the States and insult him to his face
regarding remarks Obama made in Europe about the crassness
of Cruz's remarks about having a religious litmus test for
incoming Syrian immigrants.
Now it is pile on day with the Republican candidates
jockeying for media time; and now, to show how tough and
ready they are to fight ISIS, they are uttering bellicose
statements that in other calmer times, they would disavow.
But, these are not calmer times. Not by a long shot.
The world is being
captivated by everything ISIS says or does. And, besides it
does not hurt
TV ratings if the media brings on for some of their vapid
interviews a former military expert or a brainiac from a
unknown think tank who will amp up the interview with, "ISIS
will be at your local Wal-Mart unless we take severe action,
NOW!"
Muslims everywhere are taking a tough rap due to the
barbaric acts of a few who invoke the Koran as their
template to justify their actions against the infidels
inside their faith or the devilish West for their loose
lifestyles and decadent morals.
Everyone has an opinion as to what it will take to
contained or destroy ISIS and cut off the tentacles that are
seemingly reaching worldwide and spawning affiliates in
other countries.
The same culprits are brought out by the social
scientists as to try to explain away the causes of ISIS:
poverty, anger, rage, disrespect for the Koran, invasion of
their countries by foreigners or military occupiers and lack
of assimilation of Muslims into their host countries.
Police, military and intelligence services are
befuddled because their enemy is both overt as to their
bombings and covert as to their increasing sophisticated use
of technology to frustrate the police in trying to corral
them.
President Obama was prescient when he said that it is
nigh impossible to pinpoint a lone wolf who is radicalized
and who is willing to die for his or her perceived cause.
Of course, that explanation was not good enough for the
rabid Republicans who want to see a Man of Steel in the
White House who will issue pronouncements of death and doom
on a slippery foe who will forfeit their own lives for what
they perceive as their greater cause.
The jingoists would love nothing more than to have
dozens of military transports carrying thousands of heavily
armed GI's to an every changing Mid-East front line and to
fight a foe that is somewhat akin to the Viet Cong who in
Vietnam could skillfully merge into the local populace so
one could not tell who is friend or who is foe.
If the Republicans had their way in Congress, it
appears that their chant would be, "bomb and then bomb some
more!" Everything is reduced to the simple equation of:
gunpowder equals diplomacy.
If we are going to characterize this "war" as us
against them, Christians against the Muslims, people are
going to have to be prepared to wait this one out for a
while because history informs us that when ideologies clash,
both sides dig in and neither side wants to repent.
President Obama is smart to demand that if there is
going to be a long and convoluted engagement, then the front
line troops must be populated by the surrounding Muslim
nations that, to date, are quite satisfied with calling on
Americans to send their money and blood to fight their war
for them.
Tell me. When have you seen the Saudis or the
Jordanians or the Turks issuing statements that they are
willing to send regiments of their fighters to the front
line and spend their purses for their support for a war that
could take many years to finish. Even then you have to
replenish what you destroyed and bring back and resettle
millions of displaced refugees?
You won't see that unless and until such countries
determine that they have a vital stake in fighting ISIS or
fellow Muslims on a battle field for it is too easy and
great for propaganda purposes to stylize the conflict as
They (Christians) vs. Us (Muslims) instead of orthodox
Muslim theology vs. radical Muslim theology.
When the political yippers and yappers start their
blustery nonsense of
"Send in the troops!" simply ask: do they have any family
members wearing military garb? and if not, are they willing
to reinstate a draft so that both the rich white boy and the
poor black boy can have an equal chance to die in a desert
or have an equal chance to be beheaded by a jihadist or
return home in a wheelchair?
Because if the US military is to go fight as part of a
coalition force against ISIS, you can bet the farm that the
makeup of the US soldier on the front line against a soldier
with a first name of Mohammed or Al-Aziz will not be a
college grad or a young Wall Street broker or a newly-minted
congressional intern but rather the working kid from a
McDonalds or a Seven-Eleven or the part-time stock boy from
Target. Betcha!
In these days without a draft, America does not send
its best educated or rich kids to fight wars.
UPDATE: For all of you Ben Carson followers, his poll
numbers are dropping like a rock. Why? His thin plastic
answers are going nowhere fast; and his recent and
offsetting remarks of putting the words "rabid dogs" in a
discussion about vetting Syrian refugees is dumb on top of
dumb!
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com
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