Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 28, 2015

New York Times editorial: The Military Escalation in Iraq and Syria

Frustrated by the resilience of the Islamic State terrorist organization, the Obama administration is taking steps to expand a military campaign that remains untethered to any coherent strategy. Instead of challenging an escalation of American military forces in the Syrian war, several prominent members of Congress are irresponsibly demanding even more hawkish approaches.

Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, called the administration’s new strategy the “three R’s” plan. The first two R’s are Raqqa and Ramadi, cities in Syria and Iraq from which the United States hopes to dislodge the Islamic State. To do so, the administration is considering deploying American ground troops to support local forces that are expected to do the bulk of the fighting and call in airstrikes. The third R stands for “raids,” which will be used to capture and kill Islamic State leaders.

Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- October 28, 2015

The Awful Choice in Syria -- Kevin Sullivan, Real Clear World

New U.S. Combat Mission in Iraq Is Not New -- Eli Lake & Josh Rogin, Bloomberg

What We Do and Don't Know About Ground Combat Against ISIS -- Paul D. Shinkman, US News and World Report

It's Mideast strategy week on Capitol Hill -- Charles Hoskinson, Washington Examiner

Fighting Islamic terrorism: Always too little, too late -- Jennifer Rubin, Washington Post

Analysis: ISIS traversing region's collapsing borders, flowing between Syria, Iraq, and Libya -- ARIEL BEN SOLOMON, Jerusalem post

The Islamic State Weighs in on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Analysis -- Stratfor

What the return of the Arab strongman means for the Middle East -- Mohamad Bazzi, Reuters

U.S. Finally Challenges China’s Fake Islands -- Joshua Keating, Slate

Showdown in the South China Sea: How did we get here? -- Euan McKirdy and Katie Hunt, CNN

Afghanistan and the next US president -- Douglas A. Ollivant, Al Jazeera

Why Obama’s military deployment against Boko Haram is too little, too late -- Landry Signé, Washington Post

Islamic State risk for Libya's troubled oil sector -- Patrick Markey and Ahmed Elumami, Reuters

Is NATO relevant or is it finally a relic? -- Harlan Ullman, UPI

Greece's Bailout Deal Is Starting to Show Cracks -- David Francis, Foreign Policy