Iraq: The Right, but a High-Risk, Strategy
08.12.2014 at 08:58pm
Iraq: The Right, but a High-Risk, Strategy by Anthony Cordesman, Center for Strategic and International Studies
President Obama seems to have adopted a strategy of making a long-term military commitment to Iraq. It is one based on air and missile power, advisers, and arms transfers, and conditional on Iraqis moving toward unity and helping themselves. He has also been right in giving the Kurds priority. They faced the most immediate risks, and their fate had the most immediate humanitarian impact on Iraq’s minorities.
As is all too common in today’s Middle East, however, the best option is ultimately the least bad option and filled with risks…
Perhaps it is the correct option as Cordesman states. But rolling back ISIS is unlikely with a Shia dominated Iraqi Army or even Kurdish forces. The Shia and Kurds will pull out the stops to defend their own traditional areas but not to recover traditional Sunni territory.