A Growing Realization That No One In The Middle East Can Defeat The Islamic State

Youssef Boudlal/Reuters

Obama's Iraq-Syria Dilemma: No Force Now On The Ground Can Beat ISIS -- Jamie Dettmer, Daily Beast

If Washington is counting on the Kurds to defeat the terrorist caliphate with a little support from American drones and warplanes, it had better think again.

Back when the Obama administration was contemplating retaliation against the Syrian government for using chemical weapons, Secretary of State John Kerry sought to assuage worries that America would become ensnared in Syria’s civil war by promising that any reprisals would be “unbelievably small”—a matter of pinprick airstrikes. In the event Russian diplomatic maneuvering let the administration off the hook.

In Iraq today the administration has committed to doing something against the forces of the so-called Islamic State, but the limited military intervention we’ve seen to date lags far behind the bellicose rhetoric of Obama officials since the murder of American journalist James Foley. Once again, we see the same reluctance that was on display about retaliation against Syrian President Bashar al Assad for spreading toxins. Fear of mission creep, fear of putting American boots on the ground, and excessive faith in the wonders of American military technology contribute to a fatal and contradictory combination of excessive caution and excessive confidence.

Read more ....

My Comment: If there is a concerted international/Middle Eastern effort to wage unrestricted war against the Islamic State .... the chances are (in my opinion) good that they will be defeated. But the problem is that when everyone looks at the costs of such an endeavor ....

.... Counterterrorism expert Brian Fishman says the Islamic State has become a terror army that can only be defeated through a full-scale war with serious fighting in both Iraq and Syria. He argues it “will actually require years, direct military action on both sides of the Iraq/Syria border, tens (if not hundreds) of billions of dollars, and many more than 15,000 troops.”

.... with these costs in mind no one in the West is going to commit themselves to lose that amount of blood and treasure for another Middle Eastern war.

No one.