Vive la France! Down with Daesh!
As the UN Climate summit (COP 21) meets under heavy security in Paris, the city and the rest of the civilized world are still reeling from the Daesh terrorist attack two weeks ago. Unlike the Charlie Hebdo attack earlier in the year, this latest atrocity cannot be seen as retribution for a protracted campaign of deliberate provocation on pious Muslim sensibilities that the militant French secularists at the magazine had engaged in with zest for many years. The wanton slaughter of bright young people out enjoying the good life a la Francais, sitting at outdoor cafes enjoying the famed Parisian night life, or at a rock concert dancing freely was a direct attack on the French (and Western) way of life.
Note that I referred to the terrorist gang who perpetrated this atrocity as Daesh (not ISIS or ISIL), which is how they are referred to in the Arab world. I noticed that the French foreign minister was joined at a press conference by Secretary of State John Kerry in using the pejorative term ‘Daesh.’ We should stop dignifying this criminal enterprise with either the term ‘state’ or ‘Islamic.’ They are neither. In the Middle East, the term Daesh is so insulting and demeaning to the terrorists that they have ordered anyone using it to have their tongue cut out. That settles it for me. That has to be the word. Down with Daesh!
The candidate for the presidency who is speaking with the greatest clarity on the global challenge of violent extremism is Senator Bernie Sanders. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, the usual suspects in the neo-con cabal rushed out (or in John McCain’s case, doddered out) with their hair on fire, demanding a full-scale U.S. military invasion and occupation of Syria to stamp out both Daesh and the Assad regime. That strategy worked out so well in Afghanistan and Iraq, right? One thing that makes me glad that I voted for President Obama is that he is smart enough to have assimilated the lessons of recent history in the Middle East: the U.S. cannot invade and occupy a Muslim country without paying the price in the spread of the toxic ideology of jihadism.
Senator Sanders has repeatedly drawn attention to the issue of our so-called ‘allies’ in the region, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, all repressive monarchies who are functionally client states of the U.S. Empire. The basic trade-off is external military protection in exchange for reliable, low gas prices. The Saudis and the Gulf Emirates have the most skin in the game in defeating Daesh and related extremist groups. Their regimes are named targets of the jihadist insurgencies. This is their fight, in their backyard.
Bernie asks the question (paraphrased): “Why are our young men and women in the military expected to risk their lives to defend the Saudi royal family, when the Saudi Arabian military is the fourth largest in the world?” That’s a damn good question. Apparently, the Saudis regard the U.S. military as their own private security firm, at our taxpayer’s expense. This is their fight, first and foremost. We are not like their Filipino maids or gardeners, hired at low wages to wait on them at their whim. The U.S. can provide high-tech surveillance, logistical support, special ops trainers, and diplomatic back-up. The boots on the ground need to have Muslim feet in them.
It is time to lean on our Arab allies and push them to take on the fight, which cannot be avoided any longer. Yes, I know that many of my liberal friends will point out the chain of causation from the Bush Administration Iraq fiasco under Rumsfeld and Cheney, which set off a bloody civil war by activating the long dormant Sunni/Shia conflict and created a power vacuum in the Sunni regions into which first Al-Qaeda in Iraq arose, to be displaced by Daesh. All true.
That does not change the fact that this barbaric entity Daesh, which is an enemy of civilization and a threat to free societies globally, must be destroyed, root and branch. These are the kind of people who think that chaining hostages to a treasured ancient Roman column and blowing them both up is cause for celebratory gunfire. We cannot shirk this duty, but we have to have a sound strategy, one that will not dissolve into chaos as soon as we withdraw our troops and that will enhance our leadership role as a guarantor of international order. We stand ready to aid our regional allies, but they have to supply the ground troops and conduct the U.N. sponsored transitional occupation. That makes more sense than any plan I have heard from any other presidential candidate.
On the local front, there are some fascinating developments in the county Board of Supervisor’s race. The “Draft Noreen Evans” campaign to encourage her to run for the 5th District Supervisory chair against scandal-damaged Efren Carillo seems to be gaining traction. Here in the 1st District, Supervisor Susan Gorin is being distracted from her 2016 campaign with a revolt by key union allies over the County Living Wage ordinance decision.
