February 16^th

Today we have a column by the isolationist Patrick J. Buchanan. He quite predictably believes that the local countries in the areas threatened by ISIS should be fighting them He certainly has a point.

He bemoans the fact that the Iraqi Army, which we had equipped and trained, had thrown down their weapons and run away from approaching ISIS troops. He points out that when Saddam Hussein was at war with Iran, a country three times as large as Iraq, his army did not run away. Then he naively asks, “What did Saddam Hussein have to motivate men that we do not have?” The answer to that, Pat, is that if Saddam’s men had tried to run away they would have been shot, and quite possibly their families would have been shot as well. Killing soldiers who refuse to fight is a time honored tradition in the military; the Romans decimated cowardly legions. In WW 1, France provided firing squads for soldiers refusing to charge into German machine guns. The soldiers’ choice then was death as a hero or death as a coward. To make this work, however, one needs a functioning state. WW 1 Russian military deserters survived because the state was in the process of collapse, much like Iraq is now.

ISIS has very recently executed Egyptian Coptic Christians who were in Libya to find work. Although Egypt is a largely Moslem state, killing its citizens of whatever religious persuasion was not well received by the Egyptian government. They retaliated with bombing raids on ISIS training camps in Libya and these raids may well continue. Now we have another government with major military assets joining Jordan. The execution of the Jordanian pilot has cost ISIS dearly.

Buchanan believes that Turkey, clearly the strongest military power in the region could crush ISIS in a month. He might be right. He claims Turkey has a half million man army and three thousand tanks. Other sources put the numbers somewhat less but the point that Turkey has the military strength to crush ISIS is hardly debatable.

Turkey is no longer as secular as it once was. Under Erdogan the government is increasingly relaxing its anti-religious (read Moslem) message. Women may now wear headscarves; not long ago that was forbidden as was any symbol of religious affiliation. There are now Islamic schools sponsored by the government. Liquor advertisements can no longer be shown on television. Kemal Ataturk would be outraged but he is long gone and the armed forces which had previously enforced the secularization of government is now unmoved.

ISIS has been very careful not to irritate the Turkish government. No Turkish citizens have been captured; no suicide bombers have blown themselves up in Turkish coffee shops. ISIS has been careful to maintain the pathway through Turkey for its new western recruits. Turkey seems in no mood to impede ISIS in any way. Pity.