Britain has already carried out strikes against IS in Iraq, but Mr Cameron will be keen to avoid a repeat of 2013 when he failed to get MPs to back action in Syria after evidence President Assad’s had used chemical weapons.
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Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff, the ranking member of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, told USA viewers Sunday that more needs to be done on the battlefield in Syria. If you invoke the term “boots on the ground” as often as President Obama does, you had better face the music when you do put boots on the ground, albeit in the most limited possible sense of the term.
The President who once chastised his predecessor for trying to do things by himself in Iraq is now doing the exact same thing in Syria. Indeed, even before the emergence of Islamic State, the idea of abruptly overthrowing Assad troubled US policymakers because of the precedent of Iraq, where the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the dismantling of political and military institutions contributed to sectarian warfare. They have conducted a smattering of strikes in Syria but have reserved most of their firepower for ISIS targets in Iraq. But the next step in Syria was to move against the Islamic State capital of Raqqah, and Raqqah is a Sunni Arab town. Qatar is flying patrols over Syria, but its role has been modest. He explicitly denied that it was due to the Russian air strikes, which began on 30 September.
“If we’re serious about tackling ISIL, in the end we have to be prepared to strike at ISIL headquarters, which is in Syria, not Iraq”, he said. Our partners in the region, hindered by sectarian pressures, lean on the United States to forge a solution. “It’s a Band-Aid”, said Frederic Hof, a former State Department official who has worked with Syrian rebels. But Australia and most of the European allies are reluctant to leave their bases in the Middle East, despite the shorter flight times. Jets from Bahrain last struck targets in Syria in February, coalition officials said. The people who are getting killed by the Assad government and ISIL may still think they are being hung out to dry, but at the very least, America isn’t trying to wash its hands of the crisis completely.
Britain’s top military chief has said his country risks “letting down” its allies by not joining them in airstrikes against Daesh in Syria. That has worked in a few Kurdish areas, where well-organized militias have pushed Islamic State out of their villages.
In the wake of the Russian airline disaster that many now suspect was caused by a bomb planted by an ISIS affiliate, Sen.
The president has also made a decision to boost tactical aircraft available for the fight, putting in 12 A-10s that are useful to give support to fighters on the ground when the enemy has no aircraft and elementary air defenses.
She also noted that she is opposed to escalating military involvement and sending in more troops.
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“What I want to have”, Brown said, “is a steady of set of strikes that keeps the pressure on Daesh”.
