It’s time to end the Cold War mentality

Believe it or not, there are still people who don’t know it’s the year 2015. In fact, in the minds of many, it is still the 1960’s. It’s this dangerous stage of denial that reflects a failure to grasp foreign policy reality and furthermore, a failure to understand the threat ISIS poses to the world.

While Donald Trump is dismissed as a joke candidate and Senator Rand Paul is labeled as an isolationist, both candidates are showing themselves to the only adults in the foreign policy room this election cycle. While most candidates talk like they’re trying to address the Soviet Union by telling them to talk to the hand, Trump and Senator Paul have expressed a willingness to sit down with controversial Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Is this a mistake? Hardly. It’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart move.

Recently, ISIS issued a chilling threat towards Russia, according to Fox News. “Hellfire awaits you. Europe is shaking, Russia is dying” warns the new video, which also states it will take the battle to their lands. Europe didn’t escape criticism, as the terrorist organization also pledged that “blood will flow like the ocean.”

Fox News makes further note:

Terrorism and intelligence experts said the video is a clear shot across the bow of Russia, and follows the suspected ISIS bombing of a Russian airliner on Oct. 31 which killed more than 200.

Veryan Khan, editorial director for the U.S.-based Terrorism Research & Analysis Consortium, notes this backlash from ISIS is a result of Russian airstrikes in Syria against them. Ryan Mauro, national security analyst and adjunct professor of homeland security for the Clarion Project, agrees with the assessment, as well.

Perhaps even more chilling is the threat to target women and even children, when ISIS warned Russia they will “make your wives concubines and make your children our slaves.”

The video also attempts to add emphasis to its warning, as Fox News notes, with the videos content:

Besides closeups of hostage beheadings, mass firing lines, and other grisly savage acts, the video shows the Islamic State’s destruction of historical Christian monuments and relics and features its armed forces using heavy weaponry it has acquired.

The first images document the shocking decapitation of 21 Coptic Christians by black-hooded jihadists who force their prisoners to kneel on the beach in the now infamous orange prisoner jumpsuits just before they are killed. The video also shows the Jordanian pilot who was burned alive in a cage in February 2015 as well as several images of corpses, severed heads, fatal wounds and blood spilling around their victims.

Why does this concern the United States of America?

This threat increasingly shows why this country needs an intelligent response to foreign policy. ISIS has threatened the Western Nations in the past and has already claimed American lives. Given the history of their message and aggressiveness abroad, we’re not off their radar.

Next on the agenda after Russia and Europe? The United States.

While the United States doesn’t need boots on the ground or even active military participation abroad at this point, we must show a willingness to keep diplomatic channels open and coordinate with Vladimir Putin.

This isn’t the 1960’s anymore. The greatest foreign threat facing our country isn’t the Soviet Union, it’s a group of extremist militants who are adapting to the twenty-first century by modernizing their practices and operations.

Russia is actually helping the United States, whether intentional or not, by striking ISIS.

The problem is, many candidates for President haven’t been turning their calendars forward. Living fifty years in the past is dangerous and certainly should disqualify one from the Presidency. America needs competent leaders.

Individuals like Carly Fiorina, who have zero foreign policy background and only real experience in wrecking computer companies, don’t want to talk with Putin. Putin is one she even describes as a “bad actor.”

Sorry Carly, but you can’t wreck ISIS with a Compaq merger. It’s not as simple as damaging Hewlett-Packard.

Senator Marco Rubio had harsher words for Putin, according to CNN:

“Russia is governed today by a gangster,” Rubio said. “He’s basically an organized crime figure who controls a government and a large territory. … This is a person who kills people because they’re his political enemies. If you’re a political adversary of Vladimir Putin, you wind up with plutonium in your drink or shot in the street.”

Senator Rubio, who in the last Republican debate went on a foreign policy rhetorical tirade, listed them as one of five major global threats. He stated the last threat was the “jihadists.”

Apparently in addition to Senate votes, Senator Rubio is missing the world news about Putin attacking the jihad threat head on.

Fiorina and Senator Rubio, who have a bad work history, also are living in the past.

If we are to address the serious threats we face globally, we need to reach a number of simple conclusions. The ISIS threat is very real and it takes occupation by foreign nations very seriously. This is why it has set its sights on Europe and Russia, with previous threats towards the United States as well.

Russia has shown a serious willingness to take the ISIS threat head on.

If we are to concede that radical Islam is the most serious global threat facing the United States and other nations, then logically, we should not be living fifty years in the past with illogical opposition to nations willing to help with this threat.

Carly Fiorina and Senator Rubio are the real isolationists on the stage, wanting to put their egos before logic and strategy. Senator Paul and Donald Trump may be taking a noninterventionist position, but true to the claims of noninterventionists, they’re showing a real willingness to address the foreign threats with a serious approach.

Let Putin do his thing. If the time comes where we are attacked again and need to directly avenge such a move, it would be strategically wise to coordinate with Russia in taking down ISIS. In this scenario with this threat, Russia is no enemy.

Chris Dixon

About Chris Dixon

Chris Dixon is a libertarian-leaning writer and managing editor for The Liberty Conservative. In addition to his political writing, he also covers baseball for Cleat Geeks and enjoys writing on a number of other topics ranging on Medium.