By Brett Daniel Shehadey
Special Contributor for In Homeland Security
Returning to the flames of the global war on terrorism is the result of playing a game of reactionary defense to our own political failures, shortcomings and short sidedness. America is gradually being pulled back into a full-scale global counterterrorism pit that threatens to consume its national attention, resources and draw it deeper and deeper into foreign conflicts. This distraction takes away from the larger perspective of what America could be doing to degrade all threats worldwide and reestablish the global order. There is no time to ask what should be done and the last war is being fought all over again without any thought to the next one.
Already the troop count for Iraq is continually being raised and honest military commanders and experts all agree that more troops are necessary. Talks of a regime-change in Syria are being urged by Turkey. There is a vast ignorance of Americans to recognize the state of Iraq split into three separate political entities is astounding. America has abandoned its post in Libya. Pakistan, Afghanistan and Yemen are still on fire with Taliban and or al Qaeda activity. Nigeria’s Boko Haram kidnapped hundreds of school girls, vowed by politicians to be returned, were never found. They were never returned. What has been done if anything about the spread of international jihad? Anything?
Washington seems incapable, no matter which presidents or which political party, to defeat international jihadi terrorism or plot a stable aftermath from any of its regime changes. And any short-term degradation of regional jihadi terrorism seen over the last decade have been erased by bad decisions, poor leadership and faulty longstanding foreign policies. The reason is simple: they are mostly fighting transitional militants using a modern state military, taking bows too early and failing to fight the real enemy—an idea and a trend.
Neglecting the reality of America’s proven power limits is one of the most perilous courses of American politicians. America is neither almighty nor invincible, but all too often it feels like it is. Washington’s regional plans for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia are not only experiencing a severe lack of progress but they are also becoming far less politically stable. If anything, Afghanistan and Iraq prove that the military and economy of America is capable of taking out small and even mid-level states through regime changes but incapable of effective nation-building. In spite of a decade of stability operations, reconstruction efforts and six trillion dollars, America is unable to reconstruct governments that it can accept after regime change as even close to tacit paper democracies. But already Washington has an eye to rebuild Iraq and hold over more troops than once thought necessary in Afghanistan. Will Washington support them forever on the decline of power? The failure to realize such limitations will likely again result in atrocious waste of funds and resources in a new cycle that may fare even worse than before.
With the exception of immediate actions taken to preserve the safety of the U.S. and American citizens, all large-scale military operations have a negative impact against jihadi terrorists if not at the beginning, certainly at the end or in the aftermath of the conflict. And because it is impossible to remain or effectively train foreign security services that do not have the willpower and morale to fight their own wars, America must avoid the military trap of fighting the wars of others. America also cannot afford or sustain a perpetual total war against international jihadi terrorists using massive resources and must therefore find more efficient ways of doing this. Unfortunately a global war is necessary but not like anything we have tried and fought already. America must find new ways to fight transnational terrorism in the background, using more national instruments like: strategy, technology, allies, intelligence, diplomacy and information.
Ignoring strategy and avoiding revolutionary breakthroughs in foreign affairs is gravely perilous. America’s unspoken foreign policy strategy for the last several years has been, ‘Don’t do anything until the conflict or situation gets really bad.’ The political business as usual approach allows politicians to wait for the masses to formulate foreign policy action, rather than through direct leadership, make necessary decisions based on progressive agendas before the bad things happen. America’s larger pursuits to reengage emergent jihadi terrorists in Syria and Iraq, counter Russian aggression in Eastern Europe and contain China in the Pacific, have prevented it from the required global vision and grand strategy in foreign policy.
The first step toward a grand strategy asks: What is America’s vision for the world? America is caught asking: Where do I place my units and where do I fight next when conflicts boil over? The bottom line is that American activity is being dictated more and more by the actions and designs of its enemies.
America needs to view the world from a new global frame of mind and not the confines of each momentous conflict or threat and ask: How can everything in the world be manipulated to suit the vision? What are the obstacles to our grand vision? What is the grand strategy? How can threats and problems become opportunities toward peace and prosperity? How can we make the system better rather than watch it get worse? What is the timeframe from short-term to long-term to accomplish phased objectives to this end?
Supporting any authoritarian and abusive regimes is a contradiction from the start. It contradicts American principles but also the unspoken American grand vision in all its ultimate foreign policy dealings—national defense and international stability and mutual understanding and liberal democratic values. The reason the U.S. supports or funds any tyrants is a combination of clinging to past and former alliances and the faulty short-term reasoning that convinces it that the present conflict, whatever it is at the time, is more important than the vision, principles and mission we pledge to uphold.
If America does not learn to fight just wars based only on defense and philanthropy and use all of its efforts to lead a humane world, it will fall into the trap of continuing to fight high-cost and low or no benefit political wars; made political either by a complete lack of executive competency, biased personal aspirations, special interest and false pretenses.
How America fights was has been less of an obstacle to success than the when, the where and the why it fights. America’s military has the incredible position of strength, technology and adaptability, but even they cannot hope to defeat social movements, espionage, ignorance, propaganda and asymmetrical ideologies. Does America know who the enemy is? Is it the Islamic State or international jihadi movement? Is it the international jihadi movement or tyranny in all forms?
The hope is that once America discovers who and why it is fighting, it will be victorious. If it cannot figure this out, then it will never have a true victory. It will never have a global perspective or strategic thinking it needs and it will lose the values that it once defended.
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