Targeting ISIS or Muslims?

      If you have watched main stream media or read a newspaper in the last month you know that the major headlines are the Presidential Primary Races and terror both in the US and abroad. These two headlines are very much intermingled. Americans are frightened by the thought of terrorism and they have five different candidates from both parties; all attempting to convince the public of why they are best suited for handling the ongoing terrorist threat. 

      Recently, it has been the two Republican candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, that have attempted to whip up the public with concerning reterique. The two Democratic Canidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, along with Republican candidate John Kasich, have offered carefully considered policies. Trump and Cruz have been less presidential, with talks neighborhood profiling and bans on immigration based on religion alone. It would seem Trump the business man and Cruz the litigator either know very little about civil rights or enjoy the publicity gained by painting a whole group of people as undersirables regardless of the ethical merits. Make no mistake, it is popular. After Trump called for complete ban on Muslim immigrants he enjoyed a bump in the polls this past December. Cruz has now come forth the day after the horrible attacks on Brussels to call on New York City police to actively patrol Muslim neighborhoods. 

      Why are these men the front runners in the Republican Primary? Has it always been popular to direct fear of the dominate culture at minorities? Post Civil War America saw the rise of the Klu Klux Klan and the call for segregation in the Southern States for fear of loosing the superiority Whites had enjoyed over Black Americans since the countries conception. Later, Hitler would stir the German people to hate Jews, citing them for the terrorist attacks in Germany during the 1930's. The US even gathered Japanese Americans during World War II and placed them in concentration camps due to overwhelming concern there might be Japanese sympathizes amongst them. Fear can and has been the great engine of discrimination that has been used countless times in history to gain power.   A world where people are judged by anything but their character is a very dangerous world. Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers was quoted, ”He who would trade liberty for some temporary security, deserves neither liberty nor security.” It is all too convient to direct all ones hate to a group of individuals that share a common color, ethnicity, or religion. It would be wise to remember that when rights are being trampled or stripped away it becomes easier to trample and strip even more rightist from even more individuals. This should concern all Americans not only for the clear challenge to civil liberties domestically, but also the damage to foreign policy abroad. 

      After Decades of wars in the Middle East, it is clear that the foreign policy in place since the 1990's has been disastrous. America has destablized a whole region by attempting Nation Building. Nation Building is a tactic that is at least as old as World War II. It was successfully employeed by America and her allies in order to establish American modeled democracies in both Germany and Japan at the war's conclusion. Why was it successful there and not Vietnam, Afganistan, or Iraq is due to resources. In World War II America and her allies not only shared the enormous burden in personnel and finances; but also completely decimated German and Japanese opposition. This tactic is not only too costly financially but also politically. Not even the most hardline Republicans can expend the political clout lost from the cost of American soldiers lives and resources in such a campaign that could be successful. That means the next President needs the cooperation of Middle Eastern allies it currently has as well as making new allies to combat ISIS. Without the help of other Muslim majority countries in the Middle East there is no stopping ISIS. 

       The only alternative to a coalition of allies is for America to defeat ISIS alone. The public will not support such costly and prolonged engagements. The next President can ill-afford to alienate the peaceful Muslim countries abroad that we need as partners. Both domestically and abroad such generalizations of a religious group is harmful and dangerous.