Jason Illinois

Terrorism needs to be handled with more force and needs more involvement from the U.S.

Terrorism is a growing problem, It is President Trumps responsibility to handle it. What will he do to fix the ongoing problem of terrorism

Terrorism

Dear President Elect Trump

Ever since 9/11 America has been on high guard and extremely cautious of terrorism. The current events occurring around the world involving the U.S I would not agree with the way they are handling it in foreign countries and nor would most people. Most  iconically known for containing an abundance of terrorism and our involvement; the Middle East. We’ve had a lot of involvement in the Middle East ever since the invasion on Iraq in 2003. We’ve been handling terrorism well and effectively but also left a lot of hate in the Middle East for the U.S. When all troops were pulled out of the Middle East it was horrible timing. Isis was starting to become a bigger threat, we were the “super soldiers” protecting that land so when we left it all went to hell, their own military/police were barely trained.They had no experience because U.S soldiers were there controlling everything for so long. This allowed for terrorism to grow to an all time high, Isis was becoming one of the most important threats and that's where we went wrong on handling terrorism. We let it spread and expand to the point where Isis is the biggest threat to the world.

I believe terrorism is America's most important issue, not so much within the country but stills exist and could happen at any time but our country has a very good grip on handling terrorism. Our focus should be terrorism that's a threat outside our country and could very be a problem inside our country if not properly taken care of. America needs to better equip and find better methods to handle terrorism and aid other countries dealing with terrorism. We need to educate our country on our involvement with other countries and who we are supporting and what are stance is. Educate the youth on terrorism, not turn terrorism into belonging to a certain religion which is a very common stereotype. I would like you to take a smarter approach on terrorism, after Mr. Obama tried to do but failed in many areas.

One of the most effective ways that we can do to combat terrorism without even having military involvement is to aid and equip countries dealing with terrorism, such as send supplies, humanitarian aid, and much more. Helping Middle Eastern countries, we left as fast as we came. Leaving most of the military/police unequipped and untrained to keep their towns and cities safe, more men left to join the terrorist groups than stay and fight for their own country. What the U.S did well was still keep small amounts of soldiers there to train the men fighting for the country.

America sends weapons to the Middle East making the situation there more chaotic than it was before, we have the right intention of sending deadly weapons to help fight terrorists but they end up in the wrong hands, and also the U.S is supplying the wrong people. We started sending supplies/weapons to the FSA (Free Syrian Army) basically rebels against the Syrian government, Russia who is supporting the Syrian Army, who is fighting against ISIS. This is a huge problem because the FSA is fighting the Syrians and they consist of ISIS fighters. We need to stop supplying the wrong people. It was a mistake in first place, they are supplying a disorganized, ill equipped, ill-trained, and is self divided.

After around 11 years in Iraq, the U.S wanted to pull all troops out and had enough. In 2008 a Bush signed the Status Of Forces Agreement to have all U.S troops pulled out by the end of 2011. I think this was the wrong move at the time to remove all troops, ISIS was becoming more and more of a problem and growing. We left at the most crucial point and we let ISIS become what it is today when we could of stopped it right then with the brute force we had established in the Middle East.

Ways in fighting ISIS such as bombing and supplies and aid to other forces on the ground wouldn't be as effective as putting troops on the ground, we are the most dominant force that could come in and sweep ISIS swiftly. While we sit back and let ISIS grow bigger and bigger not realizing the U.S could have put an end to ISIS if they deployed troops again. Problems with deploying troops now is most of America is against it. Even if we wanted to it wouldn't be possible because troops couldn't stay in Iraq unless parliament authorized it granting U.S military immunity from Iraqi law which they wouldn't happen because Iraqis were strongly against troops staying. Also we left it for them to be their problem it wasn't ours and it was time for the countries most affected to become independent.

Sending supplies to Syrian rebels is a bad idea, but at the time it seemed like a good idea putting in money to train and arm Syrian rebels, we wanted them to fight and try to make Assad step down from power. That is where it failed, we didn't support them enough early on and most went to fight for ISIS. ISIS was fighting against the Syrian Army who was allied with Russia and we couldn’t aid with any air support because that would make relations with Russia tense and last thing we need is to start another war with a major power.

We should have not pulled out of Iraq in the most important time that we were needed there, we could have done so much in not letting ISIS grow and take power to become the threat it is today. Maybe it was for the best our time was up there we felt that it was the government's time to step in and control the land and protect their own land, which they weren't ready for. We can do what we can without deploying troops and not becoming too involved with the country's problems.

All in all terrorism is a extremely controversial and important topic that should not be taken lightly. Major powers like the U.S must do whatever it must to protect itself and also help other countries from terrorism, providing support and aid to any point we are permitted. We must educate and stay involved in defeating any threat of terrorism no matter what country it is in because if we have the mindset of that is their problem so we do not have to step in that country's problem. Or that “small threat” will become the world's problem. We have let ISIS grow and gain power enough and this is where we need to put an end to it. Hopefully you can see that this issue needs to be payed attention to President-Elect Trump, Thank you.   

Metea Valley High School

English 2, Period 7

Mr. Page's very-totally-awesome 7th period English 2 class at Metea Valley High School in Aurora, IL.

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