Identify a current issue of national or international concern. What are the effects of this issue on the U.S.?

One of the most public and important issues facing the United States and all of the Western world is the rise of Islamic extremism and the terrorist attacks performed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (a collection of Middle Eastern or eastern Mediterranean countries). This group is more commonly known as ISIS or ISIL.

This issue has numerous effects on the Unites States. Let's examine two:

1. Boots on the Ground Operations:...

One of the most public and important issues facing the United States and all of the Western world is the rise of Islamic extremism and the terrorist attacks performed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (a collection of Middle Eastern or eastern Mediterranean countries). This group is more commonly known as ISIS or ISIL.

This issue has numerous effects on the Unites States. Let's examine two:

1. Boots on the Ground Operations: The United States is consistently at war with ISIS. This war is fought, in part, through airstrikes by drones. But it also requires American soldiers to be deployed to the Middle East. Even just this month, March 2016, more soldiers are being deployed in the wake of a rocket attack on United States marines.

These soldiers are being deployed just a few short years after the United States unsuccessfully tried to withdraw troops from another Middle Eastern conflict. The sheer manpower that the United States has employed in that region of the world is a drain on resources and, more importantly, a drain on the families of those servicemen and women.   

2. Culture War: This conflict is not just a military engagement, however. The continued violence between the West and the Islamic State is a literal clash of cultures. In his famous essay-turned-book, Sam Huntington argued that "dangerous clashes...are likely to arise from the interaction of Western arrogance, [and] Islamic intolerance" (Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations, 1996).  

Western culture and Islamic culture seem to many fundamentally incompatible. One is democratic and celebrates the separation of church and state (theoretically), while the other is fascist and theocratic. The existence of one of these cultures is a threat to the other.