Politico Pro Features NSN Report on U.S. Options to Combat the Islamic State

NSN report details new strategy to fight ISIL

Philip Ewing
February 18, 2015 | Politico Pro (subscription based)

The Obama administration should scale back its ambitions to train Syrian fighters to take on the Islamic State, a new report urges, and instead focus on containing the terrorists.

The left-leaning National Security Network says President Barack Obama’s strategy has shown it can “halt and degrade” the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, but “is unlikely to achieve its stated goal of defeating the organization.”

“For defeat of the Islamic State to be realistically achievable, credible partner ground forces must exist that can retake significant territory and govern the reclaimed areas,” says the report, by researchers Dana Stuster and Bill French. “At present, these conditions do not exist, are unlikely to exist in the near-future and are beyond the ability of the United States to impose.”

Thousands of American troops are deploying to Iraq to train its army and to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to train a force of “moderate” Syrian fighters that Obama hopes can begin to fight ISIL in Syria as soon as the end of the year. It’s an effort expected to take years — into the next presidential administration — and cost billions of dollars.

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To read NSN Report, click here. 

Photo Credit: U.S. MARINE CORPS PHOTO BY CPL. CARSON A. GRAMLEY/ RELEASED, 1/28/15