CFR Features NSN Brief on Arming Syrian Rebels

Top of the Agenda, Jordanian Fighter Pilot Captured by Islamic State

December 24, 2014 | Council on Foreign Relations

A Jordanian fighter pilot crashed while flying a mission over northern Syria (BBC) and has been captured by Islamic State militants, the government of Jordan confirmed on Wednesday. It is the first coalition aircraft to be lost in ISIS territory since the beginning of the air campaign in September, and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims that ISIS used an anti-aircraft missile (NYT) to down the plane.

Analysis

“Immersing the United States deeper in Syria’s civil war was a bad idea three years ago, it was a bad idea in August, and it’s a bad idea today. America has one vital interest in Syria: preventing the Islamic State from staging a terrorist attack against the United States or its allies,” writes J. Dana Stuster in the National Interest.

“The complex, confounding and constantly evolving series of facts on the ground is precisely why the Obama administration did not want to enter the Syria conflict and why many in the administration worried that any U.S. involvement in Syria could bring more harm than help,” writes CFR’s Gayle Tzemach Lemmon at Defense One.

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Photo credit: Freedom House Flickr, 11/23/12