pentagon – Houghton STAR

The violent acts being committed by the Sunni-Islam extremist group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) has prompted the United States and other nations take military action. ISIS, which has its base in Raqqa, Syria, has taken over large areas of Syria and Iraq. The group has declared this area to be the “Islamic State,” according to a CNN article. Its oppressive rule and interpretation of Islamic law has been ravaging civilians, including ethnic and Christian minorities. Video of public executions has been released on the internet as ISIS continues to tighten its grip in the Middle East.

According to CNN, the beheadings of two American journalists was an impetus to the United States’ military intervention. The offensive has mostly included missile strikes by sea followed by air raids by bombers and fighter jets. According to the US military, training compounds, headquarters, storage facilities, supply trucks, and armed vehicles were hit in the initial strike on Tuesday September 23. The Pentagon also stated that some ISIS operatives were hit, but the number was not specified.

Other nations have joined the United States, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, and Qatar. As stated by a Washington Post article, France has also lent its support to the offensive.

According to Army Gen. Ray Odierno, who was quoted in the Washington Post, there is a possibility that civilians may be at risk as ISIS moves from more open areas with visible targets to urban areas. “We’ll have to determine that, as we go forward, if we can sustain the level of preciseness that is necessary to limit civilian casualties,” he cautioned.

Another complication threatening progress in the fight against ISIS may arise. Though there has been much cooperation in the Arab world with the West on this matter, the fact that ISIS is technically a Sunni Muslim group may be problematic for some governments. As stated in a CNN article, some governments may face dissent from their people, and they disagree with Sunnis fighting against other Sunnis.

Furthermore, Syria has cited disregard of its sovereignty, according to the New York Times. The nation has complained that American military actions on its soil without its cooperation is a violation of sovereign rights. President Obama and other US officials, on the other hand, insist this is not the case. Civil war in Syria helped extremist movements like ISIS to take root and spread, and Obama contends that by striking only ISIS and not “Mr. Assad”, the United States is helping Syria, thus the nation’s sovereignty is still intact.

Recent action involved the US-led air strikes targeting ISIS positions in northeastern Syria while the Syrian government aimed at other insurgents near its capital, Damascus this past Saturday. Meanwhile, ISIS attacked a Kurdish village near the Turkish border, according to the New York Times. At roughly the same time, two car bombs were detonated in the Syrian city of Homs, killing at least 45 people, including 41 children. The group has not taken official responsibility for this, though it is likely that it is responsible because of their recently increased presence in Homs. This, among other issues, has caused even more civilians to flee to Turkey, joining more than 150,000 refugees already there, the New York Times reported.

Military officials, including General Odierno, have dismally predicted that this conflict could endure much longer than previously anticipated.

On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are busy trying to prevent the sequester, massive spending cuts totaling to roughly $85 billion this year and over $1 trillion over the next ten years, that will hit the federal budget on March 1.

Should lawmakers fail to prevent the sequester, it will lop off a good portion of discretionary spending for defense and domestic programs and will also affect some mandatory domestic spending (most notably Medicare.) No programs will be eliminated, but all will be considerably scaled back.

The sequester will also affect federal employment. According to a Washington Post article, about 800,000 employees at the Pentagon will be put on unpaid leave if Congress cannot obtain a solution to the sequester. Military members and their families will also face cuts to benefit programs. Economic growth in the United States is also expected to slow and unemployment will raise a quarter of a percentage.

The sequester is the result of the debt ceiling crisis in the summer of 2011. It was intended to be an incentive for Congress to come to an agreement to cut federal spending, however, no agreement was ever reached. Originally, the sequester was supposed to take place in the beginning of this year (during the fiscal cliff crisis), but Congress made a deal to prevent the cliff and the sequester was delayed for another two months.

Nobody in Congress is pleased with the situation; neither the Democrats nor the Republicans can agree on how to best prevent the sequester.

President Obama and the Democrats are suggesting that the best way is to increase taxes. Obama has advocated for closing tax loopholes and increasing tax rates for the wealthy. The Democrats in Congress are pushing for tax increases, spread out over the course of a decade, and they are also recommending other measures such as cutting farm subsidies and tax subsidies for oil companies.

Republicans, on the other hand, do not want to raise taxes at all and thus find themselves not able to agree with Democrat proposals. Republicans are also very concerned about defense spending being cut, more so than domestic spending, and are pushing for considerably large domestic spending cuts instead. In an article in the Wall Street Journal, Speaker of the House, John Boehner, wrote, “The president’s sequester is the wrong way to reduce the deficit, but it is here to stay until Washington Democrats get serious about cutting spending. The government simply cannot keep delaying the inevitable and spending money it doesn’t have.”

Overall, the sequester is another issue in the long debate over the size and role of the federal government, with the Democrats on the side of an expanded government and Republicans on the side of a smaller government. The results of the sequester that arise within the next week should be a test case to the larger debate. Hopefully, though, Congress will find a compromise to the sequester that is appealing to both political parties and will secure the future of American defense and overall well-being.