ISIS Withstanding U.S. Counteroffensive -- Max Boot, Commentary
The limited bombing that President Obama has unleashed against ISIS is, predictably, having little impact. As one would expect, ISIS has adjusted its tactics to make itself a hard target to hit from the air–there will be fewer columns of vehicles flying the black flag and fewer chances to see ISIS leaders in the open. The Wall Street Journal notes, “Islamic State appears to have largely withstood the airstrikes so far and with scant pressure on the ground in Iraq and Syria, the militants have given up little of the territory they captured before the campaign began.”
Actually it’s worse than that–far from giving up ground, ISIS continues to take fresh territory. There are recent reports that “the black flag of ISIS was raised on the outskirts of the Kurdish Syrian town of Kobani on Monday afternoon”; that ISIS fighters “have become a major presence in Abu Ghraib,” a town only 15 miles from Baghdad International Airport; and that ISIS fighters have also “seized weapons and besieged hundreds of Iraqi soldiers after overrunning … the Albu Aytha military camp, 50 miles outside of Baghdad.”
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My Comment: Max Boot is too optimistic for my taste .... having more boots on the ground is not going to solve this mess .... not even close. This is a fight where we must stand back, support those who have been loyal to us over the years, and watch these sectarian groups do what they have been wanting to do for a very long time (and have been doing for centuries) .... wage war against each other until they are exhausted from the carnage.
1 comment:
Who has been loyal to the U.S.?
Known Sunni tribal leaders form the Awakening I think we owe. We abandoned them.
The Kurds have done us no wrong to my recollection.
The Turks under Erdogan and the Salafists are not our friends.
The others I cannot think of anything much good to say.
Just My opinion.
Most of the others
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