Bombing for show? Or for effect?
Turkish tanks secure the area as airstrikes by an alleged alliance war plane target the Islamic State in the west of Kobane, Syria. (Tolga Bozoglu/EPA) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/charles-krauthammer> By <http://www.washingtonpost.com/people/charles-krauthammer> Charles Krauthammer Opinion writer October 9 During the <http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/12/29/while-the-world-watched-th e-1944-warsaw-uprising.html> 1944 Warsaw uprising, Stalin ordered the advancing Red Army to stop at the outskirts of the city while the Nazis, for 63 days, annihilated the non-Communist Polish partisans. Only then did Stalin take Warsaw. No one can match Stalin for merciless cynicism, but <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-frustration-rises- as-turkey-withholds-military-help-from-besieged-kobane/2014/10/08/311cb190-4 f0e-11e4-babe-e91da079cb8a_story.html> President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is offering a determined echo by ordering Turkish tanks massed on the Syrian border, within sight of the besieged Syrian town of Kobane, to sit and do nothing. For almost a month, Kobane Kurds have been trying to hold off Islamic State fighters. Outgunned, outmanned and surrounded on three sides, the defending Kurds have begged Turkey to allow weapons and reinforcements through the border. Erdogan has refused even that, let alone intervening directly. Infuriated Kurds have launched demonstrations throughout Turkey protesting Erdogans deadly callousness. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2014/10/09/885b03ba-df8f-4ae9-93bb-52da c7345fc7_story.html> At least 29 demonstrators have been killed. Because Turkey has its own Kurdish problem battling a Kurdish insurgency on and off for decades Erdogan appears to prefer letting the Islamic State destroy the Kurdish enclave on the Syrian side of the border rather than lift a finger to save it. Perhaps later he will move in to occupy the rubble. Moreover, Erdogan entertains a larger vision: making Turkey the hegemonic power over the Sunni Arabs, as in Ottoman times. The Islamic State is too radical and uncontrollable to be an ally in that mission. But it is Sunni. And it fights Shiites, Alawites and Kurds. Erdogans main regional adversary is the Shiite-dominated rule of Syrias Bashar al-Assad. Erdogan demands that the United States take the fight to Assad before Turkey will join the fight against the Islamic State. It took Vice President Biden to accidentally blurt out the truth when he accused our alleged allies in the region of playing a double game supporting the jihadists in Syria and Iraq, then joining the U.S.-led coalition against them. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/biden-apologizes-to-turkeys -erdogan/2014/10/04/b3b5dc84-d97d-4381-ab7f-1754d495f84a_story.html> His abject apologies to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Turkey notwithstanding, <http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29528482> Biden was right. The vaunted coalition that President Obama touts remains mostly fictional. Yes, it puts a Sunni face on the war. Which is important for show. But everyone knows that in real terms the operation remains almost exclusively American. As designed, the outer limit of its objective is to roll back the Islamic State in Iraq and contain it in Syria. It is doing neither. Despite State Department happy talk about advances in Iraq, our side is suffering serious reverses near Baghdad and throughout <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/04/isis-captures-anbar-towns_n_593175 2.html> Anbar province, which is reportedly near collapse. Baghdad itself is ripe for infiltration for a Tet-like offensive aimed at demoralizing both Iraq and the United States. As for Syria, what is Obama doing? First, he gives the enemy 12 days of warning about impending air attacks. We end up hitting empty buildings and evacuated training camps. Next, we impose rules of engagement so rigid that we cant make tactical adjustments. Our most reliable, friendly, battle-hardened boots on the ground in the region are the Kurds. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/airstrikes-target-islamic-state-positio ns-near-embattled-kobane/2014/10/07/122c9a76-1bba-4c8c-a3df-16e5a0545bb0_sto ry.html> So what have we done to relieve Kobane? About 20 airstrikes in a little more than 10 days, says Centcom. Thats barely two a day. On the day after the Islamic State entered Kobane, we launched five airstrikes. Result? We hit three vehicles, one artillery piece and one military unit. And damaged a tank. This, against perhaps 9,000 heavily armed Islamic State fighters. If this were not so tragic, it would be farcical. No one is asking for U.S. ground troops. But even as an air campaign, this is astonishingly unserious. As former E.U. ambassador to Turkey Marc Pierini <http://online.wsj.com/articles/us-and-turkey-at-odds-as-islamic-state-advan ces-on-kobani-1412675627> told the Wall Street Journal, It [the siege] could have been meaningfully acted upon two weeks ago or so when Islamic State reinforcements were streaming in the open toward Kobane. Now it is almost too late. Obama has committed the United States to war on the Islamic State. To then allow within a month an allied enclave to be overrun and perhaps annihilated would be a major blow. Guerrilla war is a test of wills. Obamas actual objectives rollback in Iraq, containment in Syria are not unreasonable. But they require commitment and determination. In other words, will. You cant just make one speech declaring war, then disappear and go fundraising. The indecisiveness and ambivalence so devastatingly described by both of Obamas previous secretaries of defense, <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1594205965?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN= 1594205965&linkCode=xm2&tag=thewaspos09-20> Leon Panetta and <http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307959473?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creativeASIN= 0307959473&linkCode=xm2&tag=thewaspos09-20> Bob Gates, are already beginning to characterize the Syria campaign. The Iraqis can see it. The Kurds can feel it. The jihadists are counting on it. Thé Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy" Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi "Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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