The Trib on Opposing DAESH

The editors of the Chicago Tribune want Congress to authorize more sweeping powers to President Obama and future presidents to wage war on DAESH than the president’s asking for:

We’re on record saying that while President Barack Obama wants permission to engage — this after 2,000 airstrikes, and with 2,600 U.S. troops on the ground — he also wants lawmakers to tie his hands. He’s asking Congress to sign off on a plan to fight a limited war that excludes “enduring offensive ground combat operations.” He also would tie the hands of a future president by setting a three-year expiration on the resolution.

We’ve instead urged Congress to give this president not the limited authority he seeks but the broader authority that he and future presidents may well need.

Before Congress grants such an authorization I would like President Obama to articulate his reasons for wanting authority to wage war on DAESH that does include defending U. S. interests but doesn’t include slippery slope arguments, appeals to pity, or considerations of the interests of our frenemies in the Middle East or elsewhere. I think we have interests in opposing DAESH but they’re almost entirely right here within our borders by looking more critically on mosques that are financed with foreign money, imams that preach hatred, and our absurdly lax policies on travel and student visas.

As Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota pointed out yesterday on ABC’s This Week, Muslims practice their religion more freely in the United States than practically anywhere else in the world. That’s one of the reasons radicalization is a harder sell here in the United States than it is in, say, France. While Americans have gone to fight with DAESH, their numbers are extremely small. DAESH can’t replenish its numbers by recruiting in the United States. You can recruit 150 people to do just about anything in the United States.; The number of young French Muslims who’ve gone to joing DAESH is at least 1,000. My point is that France’s interests in opposing DAESH are clearly stronger than ours. France’s onions are in the fire where ours aren’t.