RE: Why fight ISIS?
June 11, 2015 at 3:36 pm
(This post was last modified: June 11, 2015 at 3:38 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(June 11, 2015 at 3:22 pm)Saxmoof Wrote: So we either go in there ourselves and stay there indefinitely with our finger plugging the dam, or we fund/arm/train some other group to fight ISIS - who could we help control the region without brutal, sectarian war flaring up again the minute we stop helping them? (these questions aren't rhetorical, i'm genuinely asking, I haven't heard these questions answered in the media)
You say it's counter-productive to our interests but what are those interests, obviously power and money but the official line is that we're fighting evil and stopping the spread of radical Islam, there's plenty of evil and plenty of radical Islam in the world, if we're fighting religious barbarism then there's a few other Muslim countries we should be invading, we can't fight all of it. And it can't be in our interest to spend however much money we're going to end up spending fighting ISIS, can it?
The argument that it's our mess to clean up is the most persuasive imo, maybe if we keep fucking up and making the situation worse and worse there'll come a time where we can say, "ok, this couldn't possibly be any worse, it's perfect for more war and nation building! there's nothing to lose!"
America's self perceived interest in the region is to maintain balance of power between states and religious sects so everybody's attentions and Machiavellian energies are primarily focused on smiling and backstabbing each other, with as little energy and attention as possible being free to divert in our direction, or the direction of Israel. American would further like this balance of power to be so arranged that is it is unstable by itself and can only be made somewhat stable with considerable American participation. This way at least some party would be beholden to the U.S. and willing to do our bidding.
We have no interest in letting anyone grow so big that their have spare energy and resource to pursue independent foreign policy objectives besides just barely keeping up with their neighbors, which given how much of an unwanted outsider we and Israel happen to be, would be to direct against us or Israel in one way or another. We also have no interest in the U.S. not being placed to meddle in the region when we like however we like, even if our departure does really promise peace, stability and prosperity.
