Are we ready to change our foreign policy yet?
The United Kingdom was just struck again by another terrorist attack, fresh off the heels of the Manchester bombing outside a concert. These attacks are becoming more and more prevalent it seems and though simplistic in nature very effective. The latest one in London again involved running people over with a vehicle and then a stabbing spree. These attacks, lik are very simple to carry out and require little to no planning whatsoever. Just here in the United States we are fast approaching the one year anniversary of the Orland night club incident that claimed 50 lives. The perpetrators of these attacks have a few things in common, young males, usually in there 20’s, Muslim and one other bit that we in the west seem to forget all to often, they have family ties to nations that the west are currently bombing or have bombed within recent years.
How many more domestic attacks do we need to have until we realize that our current strategy isn’t working? How many more people in the west need to die until our leaders can come to the conclusion that many of us have already arrived at? Our current strategy isn’t working, it isn’t deterring any terrorism but seems to be promoting it instead. The current strategy appears to be not only making the west less safe but rather the entire world. Something needs to change.
The change in policy we need is something far different than what we are doing now. The current policy of dropping bombs on weddings, Mosques and children isn’t having the desired effect. Killing innocent men, women and children isn’t making less terrorism but rather it is creating more hate and more terrorism. The current policy of dropping over 26000 bombs on Syria last year alone has not done anything to make the world a safer place. Our world has become riddled with terrorism and the west has seen a huge increase in attacks on it’s civilian populations at home. The change that we need is something nearly the exact opposite. If we try not meddling in the middle east, if we try not killing innocent men, women and children, if we try peace we might see a reversal in the rise of these terrorist attacks on the west and around the world. Can I say “I know this policy of peace and withdrawing the troops…” will work? No, but right now I know that the current policy of dropping millions of dollars of munitions and spending billions of dollars and costing American lives isn’t working. This policy of violence hasn’t brought peace but rather increased the violence. Our current policy isn’t working and doubling down isn’t the right approach.
I asked this question years ago, “What does victory in the war on terror look like?” I get that the end result is all the same, a peaceful planet where we can all live. When reality strikes though that this peace cannot and will not be achieved by more killing and killing it might be time to change our strategy. A victory in the war on terror, a strategy we use by the way, looks more like a protected home front. This protected home front doesn’t happen when we give cause for people already in our nation to become radicalized. When a young person sees their relatives dying on TV by the hands of the country they live in, no travel ban, no amount of bombs dropped in the middle east are going to stop this hate that has already been sewed.
The change in policy we need is one of peace. Continuing this policy we are currently employing and or doubling down on it is not the correct path. Violence begets violence. Our lives and that of our neighbors and loved ones actually do depend on it.
