Bob Franken: Tangled friendships

  • By Bob Franken
  • Tuesday, August 12, 2014 3:46pm
  • Opinion

We’ve all heard the cliche: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” It is supposed to explain why nations that normally are bitter foes sometimes will work with each other and even join forces when they face a common hated adversary. Iran and the United States, for instance, might use back channels to cooperate on efforts to stop the intensely violent Sunni Muslim force that is rolling over Iraq to carve out a Sunni country.

The ISIS shorthand — or ISIL, if you prefer — are names that actually have rational historic meaning to go along with their insane religious motivation. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (or the Levant) refers to efforts to establish this gruesome theocracy in a large portion of the Mideast that extends from southern Turkey through Iraq and Lebanon, Syria, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. And of yeah, Israel. Remember that many borders were arbitrarily created after World War II, an effort that, among other things, created the state of Israel. ISIS (or ISIL) wants to rule over an area that does away with all that and impose a rule of law that dates back millennia.

Iran, which is Shiite Muslim, has an obvious determination to stop that from happening, as does the U.S. So now we have a shared interest. But we also share that interest with the Assad government in Syria, whose brutal use of military force, killing thousands and thousands of innocent citizens to put down an armed military rebellion, has generated international condemnation. It’s dominated by battle-hardened troops that have now split off to conduct their Levant campaign, using, by the way, sophisticated weapons that they’ve merely taken from the arsenals provided by countries like America, who wanted to topple Bashar Assad. Assad wastes no opportunity to say the equivalent of “I told you so.”

So we’re now confronted with the surprise rampage of militants that have been so successful that President Barack Obama had to use U.S. military force against them, first by sending “advisers” back into Iraq — a war-torn nation from which he had undone the U.S. deadly commitment and bragged about it — and now by sending U.S. jets to bomb the militants, who seem to be on their way to taking over from the feckless allies we left behind to govern.

In our political world, that now has generated some unusual solidarity. Suddenly, the Republicans, who constantly have slammed Obama for his namby-pamby use of American force, have had little choice but to support the use of air power. Of course, they make sure to stick the knife in a little bit by complaining that what he’s done is too little, too late. The White House is doing all it can to insist that too little is quite enough, although the president is quick to say that the air strikes will take more than just “a few weeks.” Overall, we have an interesting paradox, where an action of war has brought relative peace to the usual partisan belligerence.

All it took was the threat of genocide to unite everyone’s purpose … at least until the Sunday talk shows. We’ll never, ever return to the time when “politics stops at the water’s edge,” particularly with Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for all the messes in the Mideast, but the responsibility for the various matters lies somewhere in between years of inept foreign policy and impossibly complex situations in which no matter what the United States does, it’s wrong.

Do we impose democratic values on countries that, culturally, have never experienced them, and do we then accept the consequences of their free elections? Whatever the outcome, it can and will be second-guessed. And certainly in a country — ours — where the political system is paralyzed in the battle of Americans versus Americans.

Bob Franken is a longtime broadcast journalist, including 20 years at CNN.

More in Opinion

Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks during an April 27 news conference at the Alaska State Capitol in which options for a long-range fiscal plan were discussed. (Clarise Larson / Juneau Empire File)
Opinion: Alaska’s rudderless fiscal ship

The Alaska Permanent Fund dividend Alaskans are set to receive is again… Continue reading

Heidi Drygas, executive director of the 8,000-member Alaska State Employees Association, addresses a rally outside the Alaska State Capitol on Feb. 10, 2023. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Empire File)
Let’s stop the ‘Neglect. Panic. Repeat.’ cycle of public service delivery

The payroll section is one of several state agencies in crisis

This photo shows Alaska Department of Public Safety Commissioner Jim Cockrell. (Courtesy photo / Office of Gov. Mike Dunleavy)
Strengthening Alaska through service: Join the Alaska State Troopers

The law enforcement positions within the Department of Public Safety fill a critical need within our community

A tabletop voting booth is seen next to a ballot box at the Kenai city clerk’s office on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021, in Kenai, Alaska. (Peninsula Clarion file)
Opinion: Last call to voice your vote!

We will see you at the polls Oct. 3

LaDawn Druce asks Sen. Jesse Bjorkman a question during a town hall event on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023, in Soldotna, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Opinion: Addressing Kenai Peninsula’s education and public safety employee shortage

Many of our best and brightest educators take a hard and close look at the teacher’s retirement system in Alaska early in their careers and are stunned

Deven Mitchell, executive director of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (Courtesy photo)
Opinion: Providing for generations of Alaskans

As a public endowment, the wealth of the Fund is the responsibility of every resident of the state

U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney greet each other outside the chamber at the U.S. Capitol on April 5, 2022. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP file photo)
Opinion: Alaska’s senators and Mitt Romney

When newly elected Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, began his term five years… Continue reading

UAA Provost Denise Runge photographed outside the Administration and Humanities Building.
Opinion: UAA offers affordable and convenient pathways that prepare students for the next step

At UAA, we provide numerous academic programs designed to meet specific workforce needs

A line of voters runs out the door of the Diamond Ridge Voting Precinct at the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center on Election Day, Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022, in Homer, Alaska. Chamber Executive Director Brad Anderson said he had never seen the amount of people coming through the polling place. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)
How many ways can you vote?

Multiple ballot options available to voters

scales of justice (File photo)
Opinion: The Dubious Dunleavy Deal to use public dollars for personal legal costs

In 2019, these regulation changes were ultimately abandoned without public notice

A 2022 voter information pamphlet rests on a desk in the Peninsula Clarion offices on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ashlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Where to find voter pamphlets

Be educated about what you are voting on