Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 7, 2014

Does Islamic State Progress In Kobane Show Limits Of Obama's Policy? -- Howard LaFranchi, CSM

With the Islamic State apparently on the verge of taking the Kurdish town of Kobane in Syria, White House critics say the coalition's inability to stop the terrorist group's advance shows the limitations of airstrikes without ground troops.

Washington — The inability of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State to halt the siege of a Syrian Kurdish town abutting the Turkish border is raising new doubts about President Obama’s heavy reliance on airstrikes to defeat the extremist militant group.

A fresh round of airstrikes on IS positions Tuesday appear to have slowed – but not stopped – the advance of IS fighters into Kobane, an agricultural hub in Syria’s Kurdish north and a key border crossing into Turkey.

But whether or not Kobane falls, the larger lesson of the fight will have been that IS will never be defeated with airstrikes, largely because of the way the group fights, some military experts say.

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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 7, 2014

Will Nobody Rescue Syria's Kurds? -- Marc Champion, Bloomberg

Turkish President Kisses Off Kurds Under Siege By ISIS -- Jamie Dettmer, Daily Beast

ISIS: Even Worse Than the Hype -- Tom Risen, US News and World Report

Spain’s Ebola Case Exposes Gap in Disease Defenses -- Lisa Abend, Time

Why Spanish nursing assistant is such a troubling Ebola case -- CBS/AP

Iron Curtains, Silk Roads, and the Emerging Eurasian Century -- Pepe Escobar, Real Clear World/Tom Dispatch

How the Hong Kong Protesters Can Win -- Maria J. Stephan, Foreign Policy

Unlike Ukraine, The Hong Kong Protests Will Almost Certainly Fail -- Paul Roderick Gregory, Forbes

Will Afghanistan Become the ‘Forgotten War’ Again? -- Stephanie Gaskell, Defense One

Rebels without a cause? In Kashmir, returning militants left dangling -- Syed Nazakat, CSM

Signs of hope in Somalia, but the mission goes on -- The National editorial

Ukraine's Own Worst Enemy: In War Time, Corruption in Ukraine Can Be Deadly -- Aleksandr Lapko, NYT

Russia through the nuclear looking glass -- Gideon Rachman, Gulf News

Can ex-oligarch Khodorkovsky become Putin's nemesis? -- Fred Weir, CSM

Argentina's Contempt for Its Citizens -- Bloomberg editorial