U.S. foreign policy falters

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As the Islamic State advances, instability in American diplomacy is exposed

The United States government seems to operate under the umbrella of three absolutes: we do not leave Americans behind, we do not negotiate with terrorists and we do not put troops on the ground.

While President Barack Obama recently added the third absolute, the trio has proven to make dealing with the militant terrorist group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), nearly impossible.

By my estimation, unless we choose to sacrifice at least one of these absolutes, we cannot move forward at all.

Unfortunately, it seems the only absolute we have been faltering on recently is leaving Americans behind — most notably, two American journalists, James Foley and Steven Sotloff, who were beheaded, and Saeed Abedini, a Christian American pastor, who will have been imprisoned in Iran for two years on Sept. 26.

The United States has a rich history of rescuing, protecting and ensuring the safety of our fellow Americans. While typically an absolute reserved for military personnel, we do our best to protect the lives of every U.S. citizen captured abroad.

The second absolute, “we do not negotiate with terrorists,” is also a stronghold of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy.

“The argument against negotiating with terrorists is simple: Democracies must never give in to violence, and terrorists must never be rewarded for using it,” Peter R. Neumann, director of the Center for Defense Studies at King’s College, London, wrote in an essay for Foreign Affairs.

We have done a lot to negotiate with our enemies recently. The U.S. has armed rebels in the “Arab Spring” — individuals that are certainly not our allies — because of mutual interest in toppling militant governments. And, more recently, we have released five Guantanamo detainees to the Taliban in exchange for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. We have, without a doubt, broken that absolute.

So, what does any of this have to do with ISIS?

Enter the third and most geopolitically dangerous absolute: “we do not put troops on the ground.”

Under orders from Obama, the last troops left Iraq in December 2011, against the advisement of U.S. military leadership.

“Commander Austin (commander of the U.S. Central Command) wanted to keep 24,000 troops in Iraq,” Marc Thiessen, former chief speechwriter for former President George W. Bush, said. “Obama went to zero.”

Bush, nearing the close of his second term in office and weary from the criticism he had faced over the war on terror in the Middle East, eerily predicted the situation America now faces.

“To begin withdrawing before our commanders tell us we are ready would be dangerous for Iraq, for the region and for the United States,” Bush said in 2007 to a war-weary America. “It would mean surrendering the future of Iraq to al Qaeda.”

Nevertheless, Obama powered forward. Focusing on campaign rhetoric and playing off U.S. citizens’ readiness for implementation of this third absolute, by Dec. 18, 2011, all U.S. troops were yanked off the ground, according to Reuters.

Secretary of State John Kerry, sure of our ability to destroy ISIS through airstrikes, said sending in ground troops would be crossing a “red line,” according to ABC News.

“We’re convinced that in the days ahead we have the ability to destroy (ISIS),” Kerry said. “It may take a year. It may take two years. It may take three years. But we’re determined it has to happen.”

In our determination to not break this binding absolute, not only has the U.S. government repeatedly sacrificed the other two absolutes, but the fate of thousands of Christians and other minorities, like the Yazidis and Mandaeans, may also be sealed.

“In (Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom senior fellow Paul Marshall’s) well-informed view, there is a very real possibility that … Christianity may essentially cease to exist in a country to which the apostles brought the gospel in the first century,” Samuel G. Freedman, religion commentator for the New York Times, wrote.

Over the last decade, the Chaldean Catholic population — a Christian majority in Iraq — has dwindled to a mere 400,000. Some estimate nearly one million Christians have been displaced, according to the New York Times.

Bush was right. Caving to political pressure, the Obama administration has bound the hands and feet of the United States’ diplomatic power, leaving countless people suffering.

“It means that we would be risking mass killings on a horrific scale,” Bush said of withdrawing troops too soon. “It would mean that we would allow the terrorists to establish a safe haven in Iraq.”

The reality is, unless we do return troops to the ground, I am fearful that we will not only be sacrificing our other two absolutes, but also the safety of the United States and the lives of minorities throughout the Middle East.

As ISIS continues to grow and native Christians continue to be killed, orphaned, abandoned and displaced, the U.S. is left with no options. Our trio of absolutes has left America powerless.

I think it is time for America to reevaluate its absolutes.