President Joe Biden just showed how it’s done
The GOP likes to paint itself as the party that’s tough on foreign policy and national security. It’s one of the major reasons they were so successful in their party’s midterms following 9/11 as the country was mostly under a “rally ‘round the flag” effect as the Bush administration began a war campaign in Afghanistan – one of the longest lasting in history – and made noise about invading Iraq, all while painting Democrats as soft and even flat out unpatriotic if they didn’t position themselves as being hawkish enough. The problem with this portrayal is it’s almost entirely wrong, as the most progress against America’s enemies happens under Democratic administrations – with the most dramatic example being the successful takedown of Osama bin Laden in 2011 after he eluded capture for nearly a decade.
While Donald Trump ran for president on the claim that he would annihilate ISIS even though his strategy was never really clear, after he became president it was mostly revealed to be bluster. His sudden withdrawal from Syria was all but a full surrender to their forces, while emboldening America’s enemies like Russia and the Assad regime. On Thursday, however, President Biden managed to deliver on yet another one of Trump’s promises, as he announced a successful military operation in northwest Syria that took out Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, the leader of the secretive terrorist group known as ISIS, shortly after the group carried out yet another attack in the region.
While Republicans used terrorism as an excuse to occupy the Middle East, this latest operation proves that you can take out terrorists without needing to do that. This victory makes it clearer than ever that Democrats are the better party when it comes to matters of national security – both in terms of stopping the dangers of extremist groups around the world and also ensuring stability among American allies – and it’s something that Democrats down the ticket should adopt as part of their platform.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making