The Fight against the Jihadis: America’s Task

The Islamic terrorists in Iraq are not impressed by words. After a lengthy period of indecision, America’s President Obama has decided on military intervention. But will he be able to stop the Islamic State [in the Levant]’s murderous troops?

“War is not to be waged in the name of God,” said Pope Francis in wonderfully plain style on Sunday. One can assume that the terrorists of the “Islamic State” see things differently. They conduct war in the name of God, plunging hundreds of thousands of people into ruin.

In locations where the black flag waves, the fate of scores of innocent people is sealed. Murder, even genocide, is carried out as service to God — what a vile perversion by these jihadis, who brag of deeds that, to the contrary, profoundly offend God!

The United States — who else? — has now decided to proceed against them and to stop these people and their advance on the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq. How resolute will the United States be in its efforts? On the one hand, President Obama does not want to be dragged into a wider Iraq war for obvious reasons.

America’s (rather minimal) military intervention should also not release the government in Baghdad from its responsibility; its lust for power, corruption and incompetence have contributed much to the fact that the “Islamic State” has received support from Sunnis during its advance.

On the other hand, Obama appears to have grasped the magnitude of the danger. The United States will not permit the establishment of a caliphate in Syria and Iraq. Easily said, but how?

It does not want its engagement to expand someday to where it was during the Bush era. Obama no longer wants to solve the conflicts of other countries and suspects that by themselves these countries frequently cannot or will not solve them. In the end, the plea that the world should not look on and watch a genocide unfold was directed primarily at the United States.

Nevertheless, it is necessary to urge the leadership in Baghdad and Shiite Prime Minister Maliki to form a unified government that includes all essential religious and ethnic groups.

And thus legitimacy wins and legal capacity prevails. The Iraqis must set themselves against the bands of terrorists. If they don’t, the country will disintegrate, and jihadism will begin a new stage. Obama must convince his war-weary countrymen — and himself — that this is also America’s task. As for the prospects of this fight, one can have no more illusions: It is a long-term project.