Texan Mosaic

by CALEB BROWN//Staff Writer

The United States should be doing more in the Syrian war and the fight against Isis.

Every politician who is asked what should be done always says the same thing, that he or she doesn’t want boots on the ground. They feel it’s too much of a risk, and they don’t want to get too involved in the conflict. They feel airstrikes and peace talks are going to get the job done.

I don’t quite agree with that. I hate wars. I can be antiwar sometimes. But I think we need to intervene more, militarily. We were so quick to invade Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein, because he supposedly had weapons of mass destruction that were never found. I’ve actually have had a few friends and family who fought in the Iraq war, and even they would say that sometimes they felt like they were there for nothing.

I also found it a little suspicious that some of my friends would also tell me that on some of their patrols they were ordered to just watch and guard oil fields. I thought that was strange. The whole purpose of that war was to fight the insurgency and terrorists in Iraq, not guard oil fields. That should have been someone else’s job, unless someone was benefiting from it, which would be hard to prove. My point is that everyone was so in favor of the invasion of Iraq, President George W. Bush had everybody on board with his decision, because he was so convinced that they had weapons of mass destruction. He even went without the vote or authorization of Congress.

The Iraq war was one of the biggest failures of this country. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the men and women who fought in it. But I refuse to respect the reasons for being there. When the United States finally pulled out all of its troops from Iraq, that’s when the rise of the Islamic State started. You can’t just occupy a country like Iraq for some years and say you’re there to establish a democratic government, then all of a sudden pull out. They left that country completely unstable.

That was one of the main causes and motivation for Isis. The group knew they would not be challenged by anyone but the Iraqi military, which is a total joke, and most of the Isis fighters are former Iraqi soldiers. That’s why I think the Iraq war didn’t accomplish anything but the death of Saddam. It was for nothing. The Islamic state literally controls major highways and some towns that were once occupied and controlled by U.S. Marines. It’s not just in Iraq, but they also control parts of Syria as well. They have even made Raqqa, which is in Syria, the official capital of the Islamic state.

The fighting is even starting to spill over into neighboring countries. There’s also terror groups in Africa that have sworn their allegiance to the Islamic State. It has gotten way out of control. I just don’t understand how we were so quick to get rid of Saddam and invade Iraq, because they thought there was WMD’s, but we are hesitant to invade Syria or Iraq. We need to be doing more in this fight. Isis gains new recruits almost every day, not only from the Middle East, but from all over the world.

According to the New York Times, more than 200,000 people have died in the four and a half years. That the war has been going on that is ridiculous. Isis has proven to be a threat not only to America but the whole western world. It has literally vowed to bring death and destruction to the western world, so why isn’t America doing more? What is it going to take, another terror attack like the one in Orlando? We have the best military in the world and biggest Navy, along with some of the best intelligence agencies. So what’s stopping us from putting an end to Isis?

All we’re doing at this time is airstrikes and suppling militias. The problem with only doing airstrikes is that they are not always accurate, and sometimes civilians are in those airstrikes. There was an airstrike on a hospital in Syria not too long ago, and the media didn’t give it too much coverage. Eye witnesses say they saw what appeared to be a U.S. fighter jet after they heard the explosion. The United States has yet to take any accountability for the bombing of the, Syrian hospital. But that’s my point. These airstrikes are very dangerous and won’t win the fight against the Islamic State. That’s because we aren’t the only country doing these airstrikes. There’s a whole coalition of countries involved in the air campaign, and it has been going on for a couple of years. So if it was going to work, it would have by now.

The problem with the funding of militias is that some of those in these militias were once enemies of the United States and known terrorists in the Iraq war, and now we’re funding and supplying them. That’s a major issue, because if the war was to end, how do we know we can trust them? If we don’t want Russia to take the lead on this, then we need to step up and do more than just airstrikes and peace talks. Obviously, that’s not working.

We need to find a way to work with Russia in this war with Isis. I know the United States and Russia don’t agree politically. But they should be willing to put their differences aside for the sake of the people and worry about that after. I’m tired of waking up and seeing headlines of more civilian casualties due to an airstrike or suicide bombing.