It Is Time to Step Up to The Plate
Gilbert N. Kahn is a professor of Political Science at Kean University.
If the tragic terrorist attack in Paris on Friday was not enough of a wake-up call for the American people and President Obama, then he must be confident that there is no eminent attack in the works by ISIS planned to hit on U.S. soil. As the G-20 nations now meet in Turkey, they need to decide on joint action against ISIS and not discuss how to convene another meeting to address containing the threat posed on Western civilization by the Islamic State.
Flush with their successful bombing of Russian Metrojet Flight 9268 over the Sinai desert and the multiple attacks in Beirut within the past few weeks, the repulsive events in Paris are a clear signal that this brazen group now has the means and the forces to carry out violent incidents wherever, whenever, and however they wish. For the American people it may be dangerous to send in troops and may disturb the President’s pledge not to do so, but Obama needs to take the political heat and take proactive action; hopefully to avoid the next tragedy from being committed on American shores. (Disputes with the Russians over who is more dangerous and destabilizing go very in Syria–Assad or ISIS—will not go very far in addressing the terrorist threat.)
Even in his rhetoric Obama is passed the time to start calling Jihadi terrorists what they are, radical Islamists. The President needs to understand that being politically correct–as he even was in his overly cautious approach in tagging the bombing of the Russian plane over the Sinai what it was, had reached the point of absurd. While the U.S. has allies and friends who may not wish to hear it, most people in the world understand that there are radical Jews, radical Christians, and radical Muslims. This type of dancing on eggs was almost as silly as Bernie Sanders remarking in the debate last night that he actually believed that the world’s crisis of climate change was as threatening as a terrorist attack.
The plight of the Syrian refugees now becomes the world’s true humanitarian crisis at a level that everyone feared but no one wanted to address. As it is becoming clear that at least one of the Paris terrorists infiltrated back into France through one of the waves of Syrian refugees, it has sent a shock wave through the European countries which largely have held their doors open to admit thousands of refugees.
Clearly the international community needs to find a way to care for the scarred escapees from Assad’s horror show, but the current arrangement is only a patent for future tragedies. Perhaps while they may well not want to admit them into their own countries, some of the oil rich Gulf States can be pressured at least to fund the establishment of temporary facilities for the refugees while they are processed much more carefully and before they face a harsh winter on the run.
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