2014 Mid-Term Elections: Why We Can't Get Tough on ISIS

   

     Radical Muslims marauding Iraq and Syria want to cut off your American head.  A fundamental Islamic terrorist group identified as ISIS (or ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, seeks to unify Sunni Muslims in conquest of critical Middle Eastern regions.  Amidst their furious pursuit of Middle Eastern dominance, these thugs brutally slay all dissenters... women, children, Arabs, Westerners.  Whatever you're thinking, it's much worse.  Search "what is ISIS" on the internet, and let your brain bleed as you come to know the depth of evil this group is capable of.
     Is this a big deal, though?  America is familiar with plenty of brutal terrorist groups, which daily vow to our destruction.  Terrorist groups across the Middle East, North Africa, East Africa, and Southeast Asia claim the lives of innocent people everyday.  Most Americans remain blissfully unaware of the country's on-going "War on Terror," which now spans nearly every region of the world.  Bluntly, there are and have been tons of bad dudes all over the world working for our demise since we stirred the hornet's nest in 2001.  What makes ISIS different?
     ISIS lays claim to their namesake, Iraq and Syria.  These countries represent political gambles by the Obama Administration... the evacuation of Iraq by U.S. troops in 2011 and the arming of Syrian rebels in opposition to President Bashar al-Assad in 2012.  Coincidentally, these two events prove devastatingly related.  The U.S. prematurely departs Iraq against the wishes of top military leadership, and then begins funneling military arms into a volatile Syria to support lesser known Syrian "opposition groups" of which ISIS plays a major role.  A short two years later, ISIS emerges in U.S. news as a terrorist power player exhibiting sophisticated military tactics and organization, financial assets nearing $1B, and ownership of half of Iraq.  What the crap!  I'm no conspiracy theorist, but this sounds like a serious foreign policy screw-up to me.
     Ahead of the 2014 mid-term elections, red and blue political machines alike operate in full damage-control mode.  Blues will hush the seriousness of ISIS with a few well-timed media shots of precision-guided bombs blowing up trucks in the Iraqi desert.  All the while, most foreign policy issues will simmer in the background.  Realistically, it's too far away from the average American home to make a difference at the ballot box.
     Wasting no social capital on controversial topics like the legitimacy of lunatic terrorists who cut off American journalists' heads and globally broadcast these evil acts, reds and blues bloviate about sexism, racism, minimum wage, pot legalization, evil rich people, leaked nude photos, and poor immigrant children.  The world burns and popular media mourns Joan Rivers.