The mayhem in Nice on Thursday night turned the eyes and hearts of the world to the escalating crisis that the next president of the United States will be challenged mightily to confront.
Coming just as many voters in America are beginning in earnest to decide their next president, the latest carnage will escalate the debate over how to deal with terrorism — and just what “defeating” ISIS might mean.
Political conventions are a time for populist hyperbole and lavish promises, even when Donald Trump isn’t one of the nominees. Voters need to look beyond it. When candidates say they will crush ISIS, listen carefully to the “how” and “where” of the answers, and even the “who”: Like the purveyors of mayhem in Orlando and San Bernardino, the truck driver in Nice was not a zealot dispatched from Syria or Pakistan, but a citizen of the country in which the attack took place.
The militant bluster of Trump so far has ignored that complexity. Now, as the Republican convention begins Monday, it’s time to get specific and clear. In another week, it will be Hillary Clinton’s turn.
The symbolism of Thursday’s attack was powerful. It was Bastille Day that brought thousands to Nice’s seacoast promenade to watch fireworks over the water. Hundreds fell victim to the terrorist using a tractor-trailer as his instrument of mass murder, easily crashing through security lines. By Friday morning, the death toll was more than 80 and counting.
Attacks like this inspire powerful emotions — horror, sorrow, anger. But reactions born of emotion aren’t necessarily effective.
Carpet bombing Muslim nations? ISIS itself kills more Muslims than Christians with its attacks in the Middle East. Torture? The Nice killer wasn’t on the radar of intelligence services, and direct connections to ISIS were not immediately in evidence. ISIS’s leaders have issued a general call for mass killings by sympathizers, but may have no prior knowledge of specific plans.
These are the strategies Trump so far has espoused. He cannot really believe that mass attacks in Muslim countries, indiscriminate killing, will make our enemies less inclined to try to harm us. As it is, the Obama administration’s drone attacks, with their collateral damage in human lives, are fueling ISIS recruiting. It’s time to get serious.
Voters need to look at party platforms for a sense of where each party will attempt to go on social policy and economic strategies. Often these are what matter most in individual lives. Bill Clinton won the presidency with the mantra, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And in that election, it was.
But it’s in matters of foreign policy that presidents have the most individual power and are most apt to leave their mark on history. Keep that in mind as we watch and listen to the candidates between now and November.
Bay Area News Group
