U.S. President Barack Obama is under increased pressure to launch air strikes to support Iraq’s beleaguered army amid a rapid advance by Islamic militants.
“It’s fair to say that, in our consultations with the Iraqis, there will be some short-term, immediate things that need to be done militarily,” Obama said yesterday.
Deciding to use military force would require Obama to overcome his reluctance to return to Iraq, particularly after he’s portrayed ending the wars there and in Afghanistan as his foreign policy legacy. At the same time, the U.S. public is weary of war, and congressional support is lukewarm at best.
The U.S. has the ability to deploy aircraft quickly that could thwart the offensive by a radical Sunni Muslim group, although that would do little to resolve underlying sectarian tensions that are fueling the conflict.
“It’s doable,” Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said of an air offensive in an interview. “It won’t be decisive in rolling back all of their gains, but it probably could stop the offensive” from advancing to the capital Baghdad and other predominately Shiite areas.
Iraq, whose Shiite-dominated and Iranian-backed government is led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is seeking emergency U.S. military help after units of its army fled from advancing forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda offshoot known by its acronym ISIL...
“It’s fair to say that, in our consultations with the Iraqis, there will be some short-term, immediate things that need to be done militarily,” Obama said yesterday.
Deciding to use military force would require Obama to overcome his reluctance to return to Iraq, particularly after he’s portrayed ending the wars there and in Afghanistan as his foreign policy legacy. At the same time, the U.S. public is weary of war, and congressional support is lukewarm at best.
The U.S. has the ability to deploy aircraft quickly that could thwart the offensive by a radical Sunni Muslim group, although that would do little to resolve underlying sectarian tensions that are fueling the conflict.
“It’s doable,” Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said of an air offensive in an interview. “It won’t be decisive in rolling back all of their gains, but it probably could stop the offensive” from advancing to the capital Baghdad and other predominately Shiite areas.
Iraq, whose Shiite-dominated and Iranian-backed government is led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is seeking emergency U.S. military help after units of its army fled from advancing forces of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, an al-Qaeda offshoot known by its acronym ISIL...
Source: Latest News in Hindi
No comments:
Post a Comment