Issue 449 The Nice way to deal with ISIS October 28, 2014

The nice way to deal with ISIS is to not even send troops overseas.  Instead we host a proxy war where others fight in our stead.  How this works is simple, so let us discuss.

Proxy war:  In this case we would be using Iran, and other Muslim countries to fight the battle.  ISIS is made up of Sunni Muslims.  However, Iran, large populations of Iraq and parts of Syria are all Shiite Muslims.  As such, ISIS is also seeking the death or conversion of Shiite Muslims as well.  So we have the champions of Shiite Islam (Iran, and the large communities in Iraq) wage war against these terrorists.  America need only lend intelligence support, perhaps some equipment and humanitarian aid to help in the battle.  This reduces the overall American foot print and negates our need to have another violent war.  Turkey and other Sunni countries can join in to fight ISIS, as ISIS seeks the destruction of their governments.  So with a united coalition they can actually crush ISIS and achieve a "Muslim" victory over radicals.  

Reasoning:  For one, the United States is war weary, and thus should avoid fighting as much as possible.  We are also in debt which will only increase if we fight another war.  On the other hand, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries have fresh militaries ready to fight a battle and they can distribute resources as needed to better handle ISIS (not to mention they are a bit more ruthless).  In addition, this allows for their armies to be weakened slightly which makes them less apt to strike Israel after they finish off ISIS in Iraq and Syria (Syria is a staging ground to strike at Israel).  So instead of sending masses of troops and wasting large sums of money, let these other countries who have the means and the opportunity to fight and defend themselves rather than us defending them.

Conclusion:  Yea sure, this really is not the nice way of doing this.  While ISIS is a brutal group, the other countries getting involved may be just as brutal.  But they also have their own radicals as well who will more than likely be placed on the front lines which means we may be left with less radical members of the Muslim society once the fighting is complete (assuming that actually occurs).  But militaristically it makes sense to preserve and rebuild our resources and let the world attempt to take care of its own problems for a change.  Heartless sure, but sensible to a large degree.