That being said, there are lingering concerns about this new war.
The United States is continuing a costly and potentially bloody struggle against an enemy without a clear exit strategy. And, if the White House’s definition of victory is annihilation, Americans could be involved in this struggle for a long, long time.
More to the point, what exactly is this war that we’ve entered into?
Unlike past conflicts with clearly defined nation states fighting against each other, this seems more like a clash of civilizations.
The late political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, who extensively analyzed this concept, wrote in a 1993 article for Foreign Affairs: “(T)he fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural. Nation states will remain the most powerful actors in world affairs, but the principal conflicts of global politics will occur between nations and groups of different civilizations. The clash of civilizations will dominate global politics.”
This new war against the Islamic State’s caliphate seems to fit within Huntington’s academic model. The United States, a Western democracy that supports individual rights and freedoms, is facing off against IS, a barbaric adversary driven by an extreme religious view that considers such ideas of the Enlightenment to be satanic.
It’s a conflict that won’t end easily or quickly. That’s why it also seems probable that, despite President Barack Obama’s pledges, we will eventually need boots on the ground to eliminate IS mercenaries.
For now, we’ll see if the airstrikes have the desired effect of crushing this pop-up terrorist civilization.
Our valued readers,
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