Obama needs to act on ISIS

In central Syria are Sunnis fighting Assad. With the availability of fake identification and passports and other documents, how can we really tell a refugee from a terrorist? They became a major factor in the country’s destabilization and descent into out-and-out chaos. In Syria, Sunnis were sidelined even earlier, with the rise in 1971 of Hafez Assad, father of current dictator Bashar al-Assad, who, under the cloak of Syria’s own Baathist party, instituted de facto rule by his extended family, all Alawites (an offshoot of Shiite Islam).

ISIS claims its supporters killed 130 people and wounded more than 300 others in a string of attacks across Paris on November 13. Remember 2,000 refugees are here now and 10,000 more are expected. Most of these forces helped secure Baghdad, with 4,000 dispatched to Anbar Province. “Our weakness has allowed them to re-engage in the Middle East”.

But violence mounted again.

The lack of competent local ground forces has complicated the USA strategy to assist them in retaking ground seized by ISIL.

President Obama made the veto threat as many in Congress, including a sizeable number of Democrats in the House, passed H.R. 4038: American SAFE Act of 2015 by a slim veto proof margin of 287 to 137 votes.

As for Obama’s legacy, history will be the judge.

Walker, a Republican, had a short-lived bid to succeed Obama as president before abruptly ending his campaign in September.

Three U.S.-trained Iraqi brigades are participating in the operation, Warren said.

Five men in Syria and Iraq describe why they were motivated to join the Islamic State movement and fight for the caliphate. His regime persecuted the Sunnis which led to unrest.

In Iraq, Sunnis need to be offered a Sunni regional government, akin to the Kurdish regional government, with its autonomy protected by its own militia and ultimately guaranteed by the United States. ISIS wants to be the leader of the radical Islamists against non-believers and particularly the U.S.

The ultimate goal for Iraqi forces is to break Daesh’s grip over the northern city of Mosul. “It’s baffling to me that the leader of the free world, the commander-in-chief of the greatest armed forces ever created would state that”. Al-Qaida and the Nusra Front both objected to no avail.

This stands in sharp contrast to the reaction Americans were primed for – to hear the president express honest anger and resolve to finally take ISIS seriously and do more to destroy the organization. Islamic State is going to be around for a while.

The “Islamic” identity of the Islamic State has understandably attracted a lot of notice.

ISIS’ demands are more than grandiose – all Muslims must swear allegiance and fulfill their duty to build an Islamically pure world. Islamic State also thinks it is following a divinely ordained script, which makes it relatively impervious to normal calculations of strategic advantage. And ISIS provides services of a sort – an indication of how it prioritizes resources given its fight on a number of fronts involving complex logistics and vast funding. But beyond swearing allegiance and basking in the glow of the ISIS brand, there is little evidence that these groups share the Islamic State’s command and control structure or financial resources.

But a former senior Obama administration official, who also requested anonymity and was directly involved in the effort to court Sunni tribes, said USA officials are “not aggressively engaging enough with the sheikhs in Amman”.