WASHINGTON – U.S. President Barack Obama has ordered a protracted, open-ended military campaign that will expand airstrikes to support Iraqi and Kurdish ground troops in their fight to reclaim and hold the vast northern territories taken over by the Islamic State terrorist army.
At the same time, Obama says he will extend the airstrikes into Syria where Islamic State controls the northern half of the country.
The new strategy essentially gives U.S. forces the power to strike Islamic State wherever and whenever they wish. Prior to this, airstrikes could be employed only to protect U.S. personnel and for humanitarian missions.
“Our objective is clear: We will degrade, and ultimately destroy, (Islamic State, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant or ISIL) through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy,” he said. “This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist.”
Obama laid out his plan Wednesday evening in a prime-time televised speech to the nation from the White House, saying that after months of preparations he is “poised to go on the offence” against Islamic State. He framed it as not a war but a counter-terrorism action even as he admitted that “we have not yet detected specific plotting against our homeland. ” He said, however, that the thousands of “trained and battle-hardened” Islamic State foreign fighters, some of whom come from the U.S., “could try to return to their home countries and carry out deadly attacks.”
Obama is also sending 475 additional U.S. military personnel to join operation centres already established in Baghdad and Irbil, the capital of the Kurdish region.
U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a prime time address from the Cross Hall of the White House on Sept. 10, 2014, in Washington. SAUL LOEB/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A senior administration official said that Canadian military advisers are now in Iraq helping the U.S. train and assess Iraqi and Kurdish troops as well as assess the strength and capabilities of the Islamic State forces.
“Canada is working with us to develop additional options as we go forward,” he said.
“We are united with our allies in recognizing the need to address this barbaric terrorist threat,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in an email statement in response to Obama’s speech. “That is why we have taken the steps we have — from delivering humanitarian aid to Iraqi women, children and men, and delivering military aid to Iraqi forces fighting ISIL, to deploying several dozen members of the Canadian Armed Forces to advise and assist Iraqi security forces.”
Harper said the government will re-evaluate how Canada might further contribute to its non-combat mission.
Obama claimed he has the power to wage war on Islamic State through a 2001 statutory authority and does not need the approval of Congress. But that authority grants him the power only to pursue al-Qaida and its affiliates. Islamic State is no longer an affiliate of al-Qaida. The war on Islamic State could last several years, administration officials said.
The U.S. president, however, is seeking authority from Congress to scale up the arming and training of moderate Syria rebels – called the Free Syrian Army – fighting the Bashar Assad regime. The U.S. hopes to use these fighters against Islamic State.
The danger here is that in doing so the U.S. will aid the Assad government, which it regards as illegitimate.
Until now, the U.S. has been hesitant to arm rebel fighters for fear that the weapons would fall into extremist hands, which has been the case in the past as U.S. weapons have been captured by Islamic State. Administration officials said improved military training and vetting of recruits will reduce the risk of this happening.
White House officials said Saudi Arabia agreed this week to be a “full partner” in the training and equipping program, and will hold the training camps on its soil.
A file picture taken from a video released on Jan. 4, 2014 by Islamic State’s al-Furqan Media allegedly shows Islamic State fighters marching at an undisclosed location. AFP PHOTO/ AL-FURQAN MEDIA/FILES
Meanwhile, Obama said, the U.S. is amassing a coalition of regional and international partners to “throw back the threat from the Islamic State.” These will include Arab and NATO countries.
“Already, allies are flying planes with us over Iraq; sending arms and assistance to Iraqi Security Forces and the Syrian opposition; sharing intelligence; and providing billions of dollars in humanitarian aid,” he said.
Obama intends to announce the coalition partners at the opening of the 69th United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 16.
Obama stressed that U.S. ground forces will not be used, even though more than 1,000 U.S. soldiers are already in Iraq working as advisers and security for U.S. personnel.
“I want the American people to understand how this effort will be different from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Obama said. “This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy of taking out terrorists who threaten us, while supporting partners on the front lines, is one that we have successfully pursued in Yemen and Somalia for years.”
The question is whether it is possible to defeat Islamic State without U.S. troops.
The success of the campaign largely depends on whether U.S. advisers can reconstitute and reinvigorate the Iraqi and Kurdish forces, which Islamic State, at least in part, decimated in June when it swept over northern Iraq and seized the key northern city of Mosul before turning south towards Baghdad. While U.S. air strikes and Kurdish fighters succeeded in taking back the vital Mosul Dam, Islamic State has nevertheless become entrenched throughout the north.
Obama has strong popular support for military action. Three weeks ago about 54 per cent of Americans supported military action against Islamic State. After Islamic State beheaded two American journalists that number rose to 71 per cent.
wmarsden@postmedia.com
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