ISIS Crisis: Concern for tyranny in Middle East

Jeremy Hinds, Hi-Times Staff Writer

Aug. 19, 2014: American reporter James Foley is savagely beheaded by a member of the group called ISIS. Three weeks later on Sept. 9, a second American journalist, Steven Sotloff, was killed in a similar manner. ISIS terrorists then went on to systematically behead David Haines, an aide worker who was in Syria helping the same people that ISIS are killing now and most recently Alan Henning, another British aide worker.

Based on the nationalities and occupations of these poor souls, we can infer two things about the terrorists: They have no respect for any person or country whatsoever, and they could not care less whether you are helping their people or not.

Foley, Sotloff, Haines and Henning all were in the Middle East for humanitarian work and had nothing to do with the U.S. or British militaries. ISIS soldiers have killed and are still killing unarmed humanitarian workers who are trying to help the same people ISIS claims to be fighting for.

This is exactly why an unmanned drone, flying at 18,000 feet, is just not enough of a solution for this crisis. Although very efficient at reducing the Islamic State’s combat effectiveness, we need boots on the ground to help Kurdish militia already battling ISIS. A bomb dropped from more than 10,000 feet obviously does much more damage that a bullet from 100 yards. That same bomb that took out maybe three ISIS soldiers also probably took out a mother and her three children, a couple of merchants working hard for their living, and a couple of houses that took a family’s belongings along with the explosion.

Where is the public outcry about civilians dying now? We surely heard it last year when 45 civilians died due to drone strikes in Afghanistan. We surely heard it when more than 1,800 Palestinians died when the Israeli-Hamas conflict was going on. Where is the outcry now?

We need to have our trained soldiers who can fire well placed bullets into enemy combatants and only enemy combatants. A combat hardened soldier on the ground offers a more surgical and, in the end, more effective solution to the ISIS problem.

Our soldiers joined the military to protect our freedom and our country wherever and whenever, not to sit around and let crazed terrorists take over what they’ve been working the past 14 years to control. We have the world’s deadliest and most ferocious fighting force at our disposal, and they are ready to be let off the leash.

It pains our veterans to see everything they worked for dashed away in a matter of months. If we don’t put enough effort into stopping this crisis, they may land the first blow in escalating the conflict and attack us on our own soil. People like them have done it once before, on that clear September morning in 2001, and it is very possible that they could do it again.

America stands for freedom, the ability for everyone to live in peace and exercise their God given rights. The last time I checked not being able to express your religion and being chased out of your town for the fact that you believe something different is not a God given right.

If we do not do everything we can to stop ISIS as fast as possible, more innocents will be killed and more aide and humanitarian workers will be executed. ISIS is growing to be the biggest threat we’ve seen in the Middle East in the past 10 years.

In June, ISIS took over Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and made off with more than 500 billion dinars, $400 million in U.S. currency. This makes them the richest terrorist organization in history and on the planet right now. With that amount of money, ISIS could plan the most devastating attack our nation has ever seen. It is time to treat ISIS like a real threat instead of trying to ignore it. The longer we ignore them, the worse the situation will get.