Our Country
WES BRYANT
Since the beginning of the campaign against ISIS in 2014, we’ve killed tens of thousands of ISIS fighters. We’ve destroyed their infrastructure and strongholds across three different countries and elsewhere. We’ve degraded their funding sources, sullied their information campaign, and demolished their equipment and weaponry.
By February 2019, ISIS had lost 99 percent of its held territory in Iraq and Syria, and we saw an estimated 7.7 million Iraqis and Syrians liberated from ISIS rule.1 That is a remarkable accomplishment.
Still, ISIS continues to gain ground elsewhere; inevitably taking back cities and swathes of land each time we focus efforts in another region. They’ve infiltrated parts of Afghanistan and other failed states in their expansion to the most destabilized portions of the Middle East.2 In October 2017, the world was shown the true scope of that expansion when ISIS-affiliated fighters ambushed and killed four American Green Berets in Niger.3
ISIS demonstrates a vigorous capability to recruit and radicalize sympathizers to do their bidding. The U.S. is far from immune to that, as evidenced on Halloween night, 2017, when a radicalized Islamic immigrant ran down civilians in New York City, killing eight innocent people.4
It is easy to blame the people of the Middle East for the rise of this seemingly unbridled terrorism we face today. We often fall into a perception that we must inevitably “clean up the mess” that our Middle East allies can’t handle on their own. There may be some truth to that, but the perception is far too simplistic.
It is difficult for many to fully comprehend the lives that so many within such war-torn regions endure. Most of us simply do not share the same reality as the people of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and elsewhere who are directly affected by unstable governments and organized terrorism. We must understand their realities, and take the time to see the world through their eyes versus ours. And we must understand that our great advances against ISIS have not come without a cost.
Massive airstrike campaigns have had a necessary and advantageous place in our wars. Airstrikes were vital in pushing out the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001. They were detrimental in conquering Saddam Hussein’s army at the start of the Iraq War in 2003. And they were the main reason we were able to stem the rapid rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2014.
However, we would be remiss to ignore the unintended consequences that come from the sheer scale of our airstrike campaigns. With that, we have amassed a certain amount of destruction that we can never truly effectively quantify. Accordingly, many of the areas we’ve liberated from ISIS have been decimated.5
We must accept the realities that go along with our chosen strategies. And we must examine if our current strategies, continued as they are, will ultimately bring more harm than good to the people of the Middle East and therefore our own national objectives.
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In 2007, well before ISIS came onto the scene, then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama insisted “We need a comprehensive strategy to defeat global terrorists—one that draws on the full range of American power, not just our military might.”6 But that vision has not been fully realized.
ISIS as a state and organized military force has been largely overwhelmed. As a terrorist organization, however, it is still alive and lethal. We cannot become complacent and irresolute, or we will allow ISIS and others like it to serpent from our grip and shift their strength to wherever we are not. The hunt is not over—it is constantly evolving, and we had better evolve along with it.
If we are to be successful in permanently enabling free and independent nations, with stable governments and military forces capable of fighting terrorism without reliance on the United States, we will eventually have to approach the problem with more than just a military hand. We must act with intelligence and foresight rather than being perpetually reactive with military force.
There is a quote from a famous figure in U.S. military history that I carried with me through my entire military career. Commodore Stephen Decatur was an American naval commander, and hero of the Quasi-War with France, the Barbary Wars in North Africa, and the War of 1812. 7 During a formal dinner toast in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1815 he was said to have proclaimed:
Our country—In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right, and always successful, right or wrong.”8
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That quote by Commodore Decatur tells me we have an obligation as Americans to constantly reassess, and ensure that our policies and actions throughout the world are consistent with our ideals and values.
The United States is our country, right or wrong, and we must never forsake it. But the truest of patriots do not walk swiftly into a fire carrying a flag of blind nationalism. That is the hallmark of our enemies. The truest of patriots take time to evaluate strategies and actions, acknowledge missteps, and adjust as needed. They strive to make our nation and its endeavors always uphold the ideals we all believe in.
When directed through moral intent and firmly implemented policies and strategies, the power and might of the United States can be the greatest humanitarian light in the world. I believe we must always use it to safeguard our country, protect the innocent, and enable a more peaceful and prosperous humanity. Toward that end, let us constantly step back and ensure that is exactly what we are doing.
1 “CJTF-OIR Monthly Civilian Casualty Report,” Operation Inherent Resolve, March 28, 2018, accessed April 24, 2018.
2 Colin P. Clarke, “Expanding the ISIS Brand,” RAND Corporation, February 19, 2018, accessed April 24, 2018, https://www.rand.org/blog/2018/02/expanding-the-isis-brand.html.
3 Amanda Erickson, “Everything we know about the Niger attack that left 4 U.S. soldiers dead,” The Washington Post, October 20, 2017, accessed April 24, 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/10/20/everything-we-know-about-the-niger-attack-that-left-4-u-s-soldiers-dead/?utm_term=.eea6a103f89d.
4 Shimon Prokupecz et al., “Note found near truck claims Manhattan attack done for ISIS, source says,” CNN, November 6, 2017, accessed April 24, 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2017/10/31/us/new-york-shots-fired/index.html.
5 Petra Cahill, “In Battle Against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, Civilians Suffer Most,” NBC News, July 8, 2017, accessed April 24, 2018, https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/battle-against-isis-syria-iraq-civilians-suffer-most-n779656.
6 Barack Obama, “Renewing American Leadership,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007 Issue, accessed April 24, 2018, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2007-07-01/renewing-american-leadership.
7 Joel D. Treese and Evan Phifer, “Commodore Stephen Decatur: An Early American Naval War Hero,” The White House Historical Association, December 23, 2015, accessed April 24, 2018, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/commodore-stephen-decatur-an-early-american-naval-war-hero.
8 Gordon Calhoun, “‘My Country Right or Wrong’-What Decatur Actually Said and Why He Said It,” Hampton Roads Naval Museum, April 5, 2012, accessed January 29, 2019, http://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-country-right-or-wrong-what-decatur.html.