BEIRUT—When world leaders convene for the U.N. General Assembly this week, it will be a year since the president declared the formation of an international coalition to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the ISIS.
Despite billions of dollars spent and thousands of airstrikes, the campaign appears to have made little impact.
The terrorist group may control slightly less territory than a year ago, but it continues to launch attacks and maintains key strongholds in Syria and Iraq.
The terrorists’ reach has expanded to other countries, including Libya, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and Afghanistan.
U.S.-led airstrikes helped Syrian Kurds hold the strategic border town of Kobani in January, and seize another key border town, Tal Abyad, this summer. But a much-touted offensive to oust ISIS from the Iraqi city of Ramadi remains stalled; there have been grave losses among the few Syrian rebels trained by the United States to fight ISIS; an ISIS-free zone announced by Turkey and the United States has failed to materialize.
“Barring either regime victory over the insurgency, which is unlikely, or a U.S. policy shift toward political transition away from Assad—which would bring regional allies and insurgents on board against ISIS—I don’t see any prospect of defeating ISIS,” Itani said.
In the United States, both Republicans and Democrats have lambasted the administration’s strategy against the ISIs, especially after a U.S. general acknowledged that just a few U.S.-trained Syrian rebels remain on the battlefield—others were wiped out by al-Qaeda.
The U.S. military said this month that about 70 newly trained rebels have returned to Syria from Turkey. Still, the number is nowhere near the U.S. goal to train and equip 5,400 rebels a year at a cost of $500 million.
The Obama administration is adamant that it will commit no U.S. ground troops despite calls from some in Congress to do so.
“The whole thing is a joke. They are not serious about destroying Daesh [ISIS] either in Syria or Iraq,” said a one-time resident of Raqqa who fled to Turkey. “Dropping a few bombs every now and then will not change anything,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his family in Raqqa, the Syrian city ISIS has claimed as the capital of its self-declared caliphate.
The top U.S. commander in the Middle East, Gen. Lloyd Austin, insisted this month that the operation against ISIS was making progress, and said the military had always said the campaign would take time.
An ISIS operative, meanwhile, said it was unlikely that Russia would be drawn into the war against the group. And he said bickering over the Russian presence in Syria would ultimately benefit the ISIS effort.
“Any group that wants to divide Syria up or battle over it for dividing the booty, this will be in our interest,” he wrote in an exchange of Skype messages. He spoke on condition of anonymity because members of the group are not allowed to speak to journalists.
If Russia joins the coalition, he said, “It makes no difference for the Islamic State [ISIS] to fight 60 or 80 countries. It is the same.”
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