The impossible war: Isis 'cannot be beaten' as long as there is civil war in Syria
9/11/2014
US air strikes against Isis are unlikely to be as effective as Obama hopes. Sunni communities in Iraq and Syria may prefer the militants as a lesser evil compared to the return of vengeful government troops
A letter printed at the bottom of this article was emailed by a friend soon after her neighbourhood in Mosul was hit by Iraqi airforce bombers. This was some hours before President Barack Obama explained his plan to weaken and ultimately destroy Isis, which calls itself Islamic State, by a series of measures including air attacks. The letter illustrates graphically one of the most important reasons why American air power may be less effective than many imagine.
The reasons for this are political as well as military. The five or six million Sunni Arabs who live in areas controlled by Isis in Iraq and Syria may not be happy with the brutality, bigotry and violence of their new rulers. But they are even more frightened of the prospect of the soldiers and militiamen of the Baghdad or Damascus governments recapturing and wreaking vengeance in Sunni cities, town and villages. The Sunni communities in both countries have little choice but to stick with Isis as their defenders.
For all its bellicose rhetoric, Mr Obamas plan is more of a strategy to contain Isis rather than eradicate it and he may find that even this is difficult to do. His problem is that the US does not have reliable local partners in either Iraq or Syria.
remainder: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-impossible-war-isis-cannot-be-beaten-as-long-as-there-is-civil-war-in-syria-9727847.html
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Kerry says he is comfortable broad-based coalition against jihadi group will be established, refuses to detail role of each country in campaign.
By Nick Tattersall Sep. 13, 2014 | 1:04 AM
REUTERS - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday he was comfortable that the United States would form a broad-based coalition to fight Islamic State militants but said it would not be appropriate for Iran to be involved in the efforts.
Kerry has been touring the Middle East to build support for President Barack Obama's plan, announced on Wednesday, to strike both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier to defeat Islamic State Sunni fighters that control swathes of both countries.
"I'm comfortable that this will be a broad-based coalition with Arab nations, European nations, the United States, others," Kerry said, speaking in Ankara after meeting Turkish leaders.
He said France had publicly made clear its willingness to take action in Iraq and to use force but said it was too soon to say what role individual nations would play.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/1.615530