Whenever Joe Scarborough goes on one of his blustery rants, my first impulse is to reach for the remote, and my second impulse is to use it to inflict maximum damage on my television. But yesterday morning, the “Morning Joe” host stumbled upon a good point—one that needs to be heard as we consider ramping up our fight against ISIS in Iraq.
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“I’m sick and tired of Europeans sitting back and doing nothing,” Scarborough said. He continued, “Iraq, it’s not our problem. This ain’t 2003, it’s 2014. Europe, this is your problem too. It’s the Middle East’s problem. More Muslims are going to be killed by ISIS than Westerners.”
He’s right. Why is ISIS, a Sunni jihadist group based in Iraq and Syria, the primary responsibility of a country an ocean and thousands of miles away? Why is America revving up for a war that’s literally on the other side of the world?
Where are the British? Congressman Peter King said on Sunday that he wishes President Obama was more like the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron. But if Obama were to mimic Cameron, America wouldn’t be bombing ISIS at all. Cameron hasn’t ruled out airstrikes, but he has yet to take any military action against the Islamic State. This despite the fact that one in four ISIS fighters from foreign countries are believed to be British, the next hostage ISIS has threatened to behead is British, and ISIS is promising to fly “the black flag of jihad” over London.
Where are the French? France has an enormous problem with homegrown recruits—700 French are estimated to have hooked up with ISIS. And thanks to their burgeoning and often volatile Muslim population, a recent poll found that one out of every six French citizens sympathizes with ISIS. French President Francois Hollande isn’t gun-shy; he defended French interests against Islamists in Mali. But on ISIS he has yet to do anything meaningful.
Where are the Russians? Vladimir Putin’s regime was a major trading partner with Syria and an early supporter of sworn ISIS enemy Bashar al-Assad. ISIS also threatened to liberate Muslim-heavy Chechnya, which Russia currently occupies. Yet Putin prefers to spend his time shaking his fist at Ukraine and chasing mirages of Soviet glory.
Where are the Saudis and the Qataris and the Kuwaitis? For years the Arabian Peninsula flung weapons at the Syrian rebels with gay abandon, ignoring pleas from the United States for caution. You get a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher! And you get a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher! They’ve created a monster and, like Dr. Frankenstein, they now refuse to kill it despite the havoc it’s wreaking. Worse, Saudi Arabia’s population, much of which practices an extreme brand of Wahhabist Islam, could become a breeding ground for ISIS if its leaders don’t do something.
Where are the Iranians? Other than Iraq, no nation has more to lose from Sunni ISIS than heavily Shiite Iran. Its government has been throwing some bombs around, but it’s also been criticizing American tactics and urging us to stay out of a local war. Fair enough, but right now Iran isn’t deploying nearly enough firepower to win.
That leaves the Kurdish peshmerga, Bashar al-Assad, and Shiite gangs as the only forces challenging ISIS. The first is unquestionably our ally. Our relations with the second are somewhat strained, on account of our threatening to bomb him last year. And the third are comprised of vicious thugs who killed hundreds of Americans in the Iraq war and are delaying the formation of a new Iraqi government by slaughtering innocent Sunnis.
How exactly are American forces supposed to land smoothly in the middle of all this?
The United States spends more on its military than the next eight countries combined and it’s joined to most of those countries through NATO and other treaties. It’s become a classic free rider problem—other nations expect America to take the lead on security matters while they sit back and sink money into their welfare states.
America does have some interest in destroying ISIS: they’ve beheaded two of our journalists and may threaten our homeland. But we can’t and shouldn’t have to do most of the heavy lifting.
When Europe and the Middle East are threatened, the first line of defense shouldn’t be America. It should be Europe and the Middle East.