Recent polls suggest there is a large consensus building in America for increased military intervention in Syria and Iraq. Fifty-three percent of Americans support “boots on the ground” in Iraq and Syria. Sixty-eight percent of Americans believe we have not been aggressive enough in our military response to ISIS. Fifty-five percent of Americans hold an “unfavorable” opinion of Islam. The results from these polls point to the existence of large hypocrisies in American policy that create negative feedback mechanisms for more terrorism; a force-based approach to statebuilding and conflict resolution; and a fundamental misunderstanding of Islam and the nature of the conflicts occurring in Syria and Iraq.
Indeed, the consensus on these issues overwhelms partisan differences, although differences do exist between the parties. Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT), one of the standard bearers for the American far left, said that, “This war is a battle for the soul of Islam and it’s going to have to be the Muslim countries who are stepping up… Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan and the UAE.” The popularity of these statements about Islam and Muslim-majority nations shows Americans don’t understand fundamental facts about the situation right now in the Middle East.
Gulf nations who are nominally our allies have funded ISIS. Jordan already has their hands full with millions of Palestinian refugees that have been there for decades and hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees that have poured in recently. The United States has done nothing concrete over the years to alleviate Jordan’s refugee problems for decades through de facto support of Israel. Now we expect these same countries to make the brunt of the effort of stopping ISIS and taking in refugees. We expect their support without a similar dedication to helping the displaced ourselves, but we are more than willing to bomb them.
Injudiciously, when Cruz says we need to “carpet bomb” ISIS to oblivion and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he will bring back “a hell of alot worse than waterboarding,” it creates negative feedback mechanisms that only increase the number of terrorists. Indeed, when America bombs hospitals and kills civilians in war-torn areas, and when U.S.-made bombs kill dozens of civilians in Yemen, there is a natural response to hate America and turn towards fundamentalism. These statements and actions only pushes young Arab men who may already have little hope for the future into fundamentalist paths. Imagine already living in a war-ravaged and poverty-stricken country; then imagine the U.S. bombing your house and killing your family. Instead of apologizing, the Americans call that collateral damage. Such actions, combined with the rhetoric of American presidential candidates like Cruz and Trump, push precariously positioned young men to become radicalized against America.
Undeniably, this is emblematic of the United States’s force first doctrine, which seeks to solve problems with force before diplomacy, economic or soft power. It is incontestable that the poor job prospects and scarcities in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere have contributed to the attractiveness of an afterlife without trouble offered by fundamentalist organizations. Even in this life, being in ISIS comes with solid pay and incentives for looting, which are hard to find elsewhere for young Arab men.
Improving the economic conditions of these countries would go a long way to thwart the appeal of fundamentalism. Halfhearted nation-building in Iraq and Afghanistan crippled the effectiveness of our military efforts. Strikingly, the lessons of these countries were never learned, and even today there is little to no support for extended nation-building abroad.
What Sanders describes as a war for the soul of Islam is actually a war for the soul of the people of the Middle East. Stuck between the rock that is fundamentalism and the hard place that is agreeing with U.S. policies is a tough decision for the Arab people. Goodwill, charity and reigning in the abuses of our allies would go far to alleviate these problems, not more U.S. imperial domination.
Finally, American misunderstanding of terrorism as a product of purely fundamentalist Islam — rather than a result of economic circumstances, western imperialism or U.S. foreign policy — hurts our efforts to stop terrorism. As a result of decades of mismanagement and conflicting U.S. foreign policy goals, preceded by France and the United Kingdom’s imperial mistakes, the Middle East today is a patchwork of alliances, sectarian tensions and billions of oil dollars. Our refusal to help with refugees, overreliance on military force and inability to understand why our endeavors in the Middle East fail alienates many Arabs from us and drives them towards, rather than away, from fundamentalism.
Sawan Patel is an Opinion columnist for The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at s.patel@cavalierdaily.com.
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