This idea was thrown out by Senator Richard Lugar on an interview show last Sunday.
It sounds bizarre to get directly involved in internal warfare. There’s no UN resolution. There’s no imminent threat to the US.
OTOH the President says we’re fighting terrorism. Hamas and al Aksa and Islamic Jihad certainly do commit terrorist acts. In particular, they commit acts of terrorism against our ally, Israel. Perhaps more importantly, they stand in the way of a peace agreemnent and a Palestinian state. Abbas doesn’t have the power to fight these organizations. If peace is to be achieved, he will need outside help.
So, does it make any sense for NATO or the US or some coalition to fight a war against Hamas and other middle eastern terrorist organizations? If not, is there anything the US and other countries should do to stop these terrorist organizations?
How would we fight such a war? Certainly, we could occupy Gaza and the West Bank, but the Israelis have already done that with no success whatsoever in stopping Hamas’ terrorist attacks. There is nothing whatsoever that the U.S. could do militarily that the Israeli armed forces are incapable of doing themselves.
Have to agree with Minty. The Israeli’s seem to have the forces neccessary to carry out any action they see fit. US forces would be no more welcome than Israel’s. I would say that another Arab country would need to step up to plate and offer to serve that in that capacity (police action).
I agree that the US and the western nations shouldn’t play a military role in attacking Hamas. I’m not sure whether or not Israel has had any success. There’s no way to know whether Hamas would have conducted more terrorism absent Israel’s response.
ISTM that something the west really ought to do is to take a hard line against these terrorist organizations. Unfortunately, France is unwilling to do so.
I agree with minty on this. The Israel’s haven’t been unsuccessful against Hamas for lack of trying or lack of ability. Even if we wanted to get involved in this, it’s unclear that we could do any more than what the Israelis have already tried to do. Unless of course we were to mount a full out invasion. Once again, Israel is perfectly capable of doing this w/o the US if they want.
If Hamas were to fund or direct terrorist attacks against US targets, it might make sense for the US to explicity team up with Israel to go after them.
I would support an international force of roughtly 1/3 Arabs/Muslims, 1/3 Europeans, and 1/3 from other countries, but no U.S. troops because they wold bring needless political complications to the situation.
It would be like going to war against the Crypts or the Bloods. Sure, we know who some of the main playahs are, but beyond that, an abyss. Local support and secretive membership. Clandestine funding and activities. It’s just not a large enough group to go to war against, and it would just end up as a war against Palestine. You wouldn’t have as much of a war there as a occupation. Lugar is an idiot.
While I hardly share Lugar’s politics I don’t think he’s an idiot for suggesting that a military/peace-keeping role by the U.S. and or international forces is possible (and potentially useful) in Palestine. While a military campaign against Hamas by U.S./U.N. troops would be fruitless a lot people on both sides think that a peace-keeping force in Palestine could (not presently but in the near future) help bolster a weak Palestinian Authority, and would have a legitimacy in the eyes of Palestinians that Israeli troops could never have.
Anyway, to address the OP, I think any “outsider” trying to stick themselves into this whole mess is just begging to (figuratively) get their arm chewed off. A multinational peacekeeping coalition, to keep all sides from attacking each other, might be workable, but only if they disarmed all sides and smite all troublemakers equally – e.g., if another Hamas suicide bomber blows up a Tel Aviv marketplace, the retaliatory action would come from the peacekeepers, not Israel.
We’ve been pretty much unsuccessful in attacking al-Quada, why would we have more success against Hamas?
We had some reasonable success against al-Quada by attacking Afghanistan, but. We couldn’t get at al-Quada directly, so we went after the Taliban government that was aiding them. And now we’ve gone after the Iraqi government that was allegedly aiding them. Our biggest successes against al-Quada in reality have been going after their assets, and those successes are pretty paltry in the broad scheme of things.
It’s easy to go after a government – you disrupt power and communication and you take over the country. It’s almost impossible to go after hidden terrorist groups.
The Israelis have been most successful against Hamas et al when they’ve targeted individual Hamas leaders for assassination. The broader bombings are seen by the world press (and by the Palestinians) as attacks against the Palestinian people, not attacks against the terrorist groups.
CKDH, I would have to be fair and say the war in Afghanistan hurt al-Qaida more than you’re giving credit for.
Hamas, however, would be a vastly more difficult target for the simple reason that there isn’t a single country you could invade that contains the great majority of their static bases. As december has already pointed out, we can’t even say for sure that ISRAEL has successfully reduced Hamas terrorism - and no country on the planet has better intelligence or access to Hamas than Israel does.
I think the OP poses two questions:
Should the USA take action against Hamas?
CAN they?
I think that you can make a strong argument that the answer to Question 1 is yes, even if it goes no further than the observation that civilized nations must hunt down and kill terrorists whenever the opportunity arises. Like pirates, terrorists are enemies of the human race. A civilized nation has the RESPONSIBILITY to stop them.
But ther answer to #2 is, very plainly to me anyway, “No, not really.” As it stands, the only way you count root out Hamas would be if every single country in the area was dedicated to its destruction. Which they aren’t. And even then it’s not entirely certain you could completely stop them.
So after Hamas, when do we go after Falun Gong, the Tamil Tigers, that sarin sect in Japan, the Shining Path and Chechnian separatists? Israel is a sovereign country, so why would we send our military forces there to do what is Israel’s job?
Well, that’s the problem, nisoshar. It’s why fighting terrorism ain’t easy. In the case of Hamas, they don’t operate exclusively out of Israel, but even then it’s not an easy matter to get the relevant nations to agree on what to do. It’s nigh on impossible to fight terrorists unless you’re fighting alongside the relevant sovereign power.
What could be gained from US forces fighting Hamas? If there is a military solution then Israel already has sufficent military strength itself, and if there isnt a military solution then it wont help anyway. Your involvement could however make things worse both for the region and for yourselves. Currently Hamas confines itself to targeting Israel, you would gain nothing by your involvement except suicide bombers on buses in Boston. I’m of the opinion that a duty of government is to make life safer for its citizens not recklessly make enemies and endanger them.