Thursday, April 25, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor

Shouldn't France Take the Lead? And How About the United Nations?

November 19, 2015 --

U.S. media reaction to the November 13 terror attacks in Paris --that is to say, on French soil -- included calls for President Obama to act against ISIS.

New York Post columnist Michael Goodwin has called on the president to act or resign. French President Francois Hollande has termed the terror attacks an "act of war" and has vowed that France will be "pitiless" in responding to ISIS. He has asked the United States and Russia to cooperate in the war with ISIS. Some time ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the Obama administration work with Moscow to combat ISIS.

With news of an Obama-Putin meeting in Turkey, November 15, LPR thought that the president decided, finally, to reject the counsel of Russophobes in his administration and join Putin in fighting ISIS. Still, it was in Ankara, April 6, 2009, that the president, addressing the Turkish parliament, said: "The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam." He reiterated this statement in his speech at Cairo University, June 4, 2009. In Cairo, however, President Obama added that the United States "will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security." (On August 20, 2014, President Obama, in a statement on the barbaric beheading by ISIS of U.S. journalist James Foley, indicated that his administration will do what is necessary "to protect our people. We will be vigilant and we will be relentless." After making this statement, the President went off for a round of golf.)

If President Obama is reluctant to accept President Hollande's call for the United States and Russia to joint the anti-ISIS coalition, is it because he does not regard ISIS as a threat to U.S. security -- or is it that he is concerned about giving the appearance of being at war with Islam?

The terror attack on France was barbaric. But this is not the first instance of atrocious conduct from ISIS forces, merely the latest. Where has the United Nations been, since ISIS took control of large areas of Iraq and Syria, acting ruthlessly and contrary to all norms of civilized behavior: murdering prisoners, killing non-Muslims who would not convert to Islam, enslaving women. Until now, has the UN Security Council determined that ISIS is not a threat to international peace? Is the United Nations concerned only with demands from the Palestinian Authority to pressure Israel into submission? Where is the international consensus on putting an end to ISIS?