The U.S.’s Show of Power Against the Islamic State
The U.S.’s Show of Power Against the Islamic State by David Ignatius, Washington Post
… If more Sunni sheiks are working with the United States (and an Iraqi government they despise), it’s for a cynical reason: They think the American side is winning. U.S. commanders name seven Sunni tribes that are now contributing fighters against the Islamic State. What’s intriguing is that some of these tribes are said to be split, with part still backing the Islamic State and others defecting. The U.S. strategy is to treat the so-called caliphate as a weak state — and turn the tables by mounting an insurgency against it from the inside.
America’s military strength remains overwhelming, even after the tests of the past decade, and the emerging campaign almost surely will gradually disable the Islamic State. The problem, as nearly every commander here will acknowledge, is that U.S. military might cannot make a broken Iraq work as a nation.