Every culture has its own philosophy on the justifiable use of force. The sheer number of writings on the topic is obviously massive, but most of them have one thing in common: The use of force is justified in the defense of one's self or in the defense of another. In addition, the victim, whether that be you or the person in whose defense you are acting, must not be himself acting in an immoral or improper manner. In other words, the victim must have clean hands.
It is obviously extremely difficult to rush to the defense of others in every situation. There are some situations that cannot be resolved by force. There are some situations in which the force available is inadequate to defend the victim. There are situations, of course, in which the victim's hands are not entirely clean, but the aggressor's force is disproportionate to the victim's trespass. Finally, there are always individual moral considerations. What one culture considers to be unclean hands, another may consider to be a great cause.
The world is now contemplating the use of force to stop The Caliphate currently exterminating Christians and some Muslims in Northern Iraq and Syria. To Western eyes, the Caliphate is engaged in a level of brutality that is nearly unparalleled in history. Legitimate comparisons to the Holocaust can be made. It is akin to the genocide the world saw from the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. As I pointed out in my last article, they are crucifying men, women and children. They are cutting children in half in front of Anglican priests. They are burying families alive, all because of their ethnic and religious beliefs.
Rarely does the world express such universal outrage. This is because there are no circumstances under which The Caliphate's conduct could be justified. Likewise, there is no evidence that the victims in this case have provoked this purge or otherwise have unclean hands. The Iraqi government, such that it is, does not have clean hands. It systematically excluded Sunnis and Kurds from the government. It marginalized and refused to support other groups outside of their Shiite community. However, the force being used by The Caliphate is extreme and completely disproportionate to the discrimination the Shiite majority admittedly engaged in. Regardless, the children are innocent as are most of the civilians being slaughtered.
The moral justification to intervene on behalf of the victims of this genocide is undeniable, which leads to the question of whether the use of force is possible and would be effective. There is no question that a unified world, including the United States, has the raw power to attack and annihilate The Caliphate. However, whether attacking and annihilating The Caliphate would solve the problem of oppression and genocide in the Middle East is an entirely different matter.
It is indisputable that war has been a way of life in the Middle East. It is indisputable that horrific attacks on civilians have also been a frequent occurrence throughout the region. The world stood by and watched as Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds. The world stood by as both sides in the Iran - Iraq war used mustard gas on each other, killing thousands of women and children along with the soldiers. Sunnis in Iraq oppressed and tortured countless Shiite Iraqis for decades under the Hussein regime. In Syria, Bashar Al Assad and his father, Alawites, literally spent generations using secret police to oppress and torture both Sunnis and Shiites. Then, of course, there are the numerous bus bombings, mall bombings, airplane hijackings, kidnappings and beatings that have been a way of life for millions of Jews, Christians and Arabs living just about anywhere in the region.
It does not seem very likely that there is any military force that could adequately quell this sad history or otherwise change the course of events as they are unfolding. Radical Islam has been on the march. The "Arab Spring," while initially a beacon of hope, quickly devolved into another opportunity for radical Islamists to seize power. They are now engaged in a civil war, and Christians, as well as women and children are getting caught in the crossfire. It is extremely sad, but absent the will to attack, conquer, and occupy the country, there is very little we can do. Moreover, unless we also have the will to occupy that part of the world in perpetuity, and force our liberal principles upon the residents, our efforts will be ultimately wasted.
So the world faces a difficult choice. We will either allow violent self determination that offends our sense of morality and deal with the consequences of that, or we will decide that using force to press more moderate values upon the rest of the world is acceptable. Every drop of blood spilled in pursuit of something in between, is spilled only to alleviate our guilt over not doing something more. It is not spilled to effect lasting change, however.
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