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United States-led warplanes struck terrorist-held targets in Syria for the first time last week. The next day, President Barack Obama admitted that the U.S. may have underestimated the threat that the Islamic State possesses.
“They are not necessarily a threat to our borders yet—although they have threatened to attack us,” sophomore Brandon Yeates said. “They are a major threat to our political initiatives in the Middle East. They are threatening our allies and we are already seeing them destabilizing allies like Saudi Arabia, because the Arabs are being reluctant in their bombing runs against ISIS. They are a major threat to foreign policy.”
The U.S. and five Arab allies launched the aerial campaign and struck a Syrian town near the Turkish border, as well as other positions in the eastern part of the country.
However, in the CNN article “ISIS fighter says U.S. airstrikes aren’t very effective,” Syrian fighter Abu Talha said ISIS is prepared and the U.S. attacks are trivial. ISIS emptied their headquarters, hiding equipment in civilian neighborhoods or underground.
“We’ve been ready for this for some time,” Talha said. “We know that our bases are known because they’re tracking us with radars and satellites, so we had backup locations.”
Until the Sunday after the strikes began, the official U.S. position was that local troops would be able to handle the situation, however, President Obama admitted to CBS’ 60 minutes that the national intelligence director, James Clapper, said the U.S. overestimated the ability of Iraqi army and underestimated the threat of the Islamic State.
“I don’t think that we as a country have overestimated the threat of ISIS,” senior Megan Kernell said. “Maybe some members of the government have just realized it, or maybe they decided that it’s time to admit it—but it hasn’t been a secret that ISIS is intent on killing as many people as they can. When they cut off Americans’ heads and proudly display it—I think that’s when you know that they are trying to destroy us.”
ISIS, an acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, is a splinter group from Al Qaeda that commands more than 10,000 fighters. Their aim is to create an Islamic proto-state spanning portions of Iraq and Syria. Their efforts have resulted in massacring Iraq and Syrian troops, terrorizing and killing civilian minorities.
While American troops were in Iraq, an enormous amount of resources and time were employed to stop the group. However, after U.S. troops pulled out in 2011, political turmoil convulsed and the Sunni-Shiite tension has been called upon to gain Sunni extremists.
There are currently 1,600 American advisors and special operation troops who have been ordered to Iraq. As of yet, President Obama has not approved more than that and does not have an interest on a strong ground presence in Syria.
In the Times article “Boehner: U.S. May Have No Choice But to Send Troops to Fight ISIS,” Speaker of the House John Boehner said U.S. airstrikes alone aren’t enough.
“At the end of the day, I think it’s gonna take more than air strikes to drive [ISIS] outta there,” Boehner said. “At some point, somebody’s boots have to be on the ground.”
The U.S. struck ISIS command and control centers, transportation and logistics, and oil refineries on Saturday. ISIS’ oil sales on the black market garner up to $2 million a day, but Talha said they have other resources besides oil.
“They hit us in some areas, and we advance in others,” Talha said. “If we are pushed back in Iraq, we advance in northern Syria. These strikes cannot stop us, our support or our fighters.”
ISIS has exploded its notoriety in the U.S. after journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff were beheaded.
“These are barbarians,” Boehner said. “They intend to kill us. And if we don’t destroy them first, we’re going to pay the price.”
The most pressing question at the moment is will President Obama call congress back in order to vote on the use of U.S. military force to attack and destroy the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria? British Prime Minister David Cameron called Parliament back from recess to vote on the issue. Will the U.S. follow suit?
“As long as there aren’t any constitutional concerns, it is an important enough issue that they should stop playing golf and work on it,” Yeates said.
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