Fighting Al Qaeda...I mean ISIS

The attacks this past weekend in Paris highlight something we typically only look at in the aftermath of these types of attacks. How do we fight ISIS and stop terrorism? How can we eradicate this scourge of the earth? How do we draw a big circle around the problem and solve it once and for all? Wait a minute...Didn't we just have this conversation around 14 years ago? Yes we did. But here we are again. Obviously, the first step to solving a problem is to identify it. That's the easy part. You and I can easily stare at our computer screens and read the terrifying headlines. We can watch the 24-hour news networks (whichever you prefer) and see the carnage. Every report that comes down says the same thing: Radical Islamic Terrorists have once again taken the life of the innocent. That's the thing. We all know the problem but no one really knows how to solve it. Everyone has theories or plans on how to crush ISIS. But no one knows the secondary effects of what happens after we eradicate them. Sure we can try to get the bad guys, but someone different will step up and lead a new group. Half of me says, "Man, if I could just get in a room with these guys, I could talk them out of it. I can convince them." But the other half tells me how much of an idiot I am. These types of people can't be 'talked to.' They are psychotic. They are deranged. The higher ranking individuals, at the very least, are beyond saving. They are also very good at recuiting the impressionable, unfortunately for us. And they won't stop until they feel they have accomplished their goal. In short, they’re pathologically insane with a completely unattainable, skydiving-without-a-parachute, type of goal. They've been blinded by their ambition and, quite frankly, we are the ones losing. We are the ones who live in fear. We are the ones who are sacrificing freedom for safety. We have U.S. Senators saying we need to destroy ISIS. France is at war with them. Russia has joined the fight. But all this does is put us right back to where we were in Afghanistan trying to hunt down Al Qaeda from the outside. We are close to pouring trillions of dollars into a multi-national coalition, funneling thousands of soldiers, and flooding the region until we flush them out. Haven't we seen this episode. Haven't we had this fight already. Haven't we already sacrificed for the betterment of the world. Haven't we already LED from the front. At some point, you’ve gone past leading the horse to the water. You’ve brought the water up to the face and said “drink” in 17 different languages but the horse refuses. We have done our part. No. The region needs to step up. The region needs to band together and fight this fight. They are losing their land, their oil, and their money. They're losing the ground we gave them when we stormed in. There are somewhere between 3 million and 5 million Middle Eastern frontline soldiers depending on which countries you include. For perspective, the US reached just over 260,000 at the peak US involvement in Iraq (165,000) and Afghanistan (90,000). It's time for the region to step up instead of funneling their people out of the region as refugees.

#JimmyD