A long read, but good: ...as the battle for Kobani has graphically demonstrated, the fighters of the Islamic State have shown a willingness to close in and destroy their enemies with a fervor that outstrips any similar inclination on the part of those they confront. In short, their willingness to die for their cause far exceeds that of their opponents. In such a battle, those who are not willing to make the ultimate sacrifice have a tendency to pack up and run. ... The coalition that is being assembled under American leadership is as fractured as it is ineffective. Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga -- ostensibly the most effective fighters in the coalition -- lack the resources and inclination to operate beyond the borders of their autonomous region. The Iraqi Army lacks any real motivation to engage in anything resembling serious fighting. The so-called moderate Syrian resistance simply doesnt exist as a viable fighting force capable of projecting itself in any meaningful fashion. Even Turkey, whose parliament recently voted to authorize its military to take action against the Islamic State, seems impotent in the face of the Islamic State forces operating across from its border. (Turkey claims it seeks to impose a broad security buffer along its border with Syria, inclusive of a no-fly zone, but will do so only if the United States embraces a broader strategy that seeks the forcible removal of Syrias President, Bashar al-Assad. Given Americas recent experience with regime change in Iraq, this option seems doubtful). The coalitions air power looks impressive on paper, but fails to impress upon closer scrutiny. Iraq does not want Arab aircraft operating against targets in its territory. The British contingent is small (six aircraft) and limited to operations in Iraq. Only the United States brings serious capability to the table, and even this is limited in terms of what air power, void of any supporting ground forces, can actually deliver. America has some stark choices before it on how to best deal with the problems presented by the Islamic State: to continue to engage in an expensive and ultimately fruitless game of whack-a-mole against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, to escalate its involvement to include the deployment of significant American ground forces -- the dreaded boots on the ground -- in an effort to do some closing with and destruction of enemy forces of our own, or to let the Islamic State phenomenon run its course, unimpeded by American intervention. ...
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 11:16:32 +0000
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