Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Leading Indicator?

Is Jordan's humanitarian interest in western Anbar telegraphing their intent to intervene in Iraq against ISIL?

This is interesting:

Jordan has flown humanitarian aid to Iraq's western Anbar province, where jihadists from the Islamic State group have seized ground and sown fear among the population, the royal court said Monday.

"A Royal Air Force aircraft laden with huge quantities of humanitarian aid and other supplies to the Iraqi people... landed at the Ain al-Assad airport" in Anbar, a statement said.

Recall that prior to our current bombing campaigns in Iraq and Syria, we initially just provided humanitarian aid.

And even when we first started bombing jihadis, the justification we used was that it assisted the humanitarian missions.

Only later did we just say we are bombing to defeat ISIL separately from any humanitarian justification.

So is Jordan following this route to intervention? The same article says that Jordan's king met with Iraq's vice president to discuss coordinating efforts against ISIL.

I have written that the Jordanians could play a valuable role by providing a ground force advancing from the west to complement an Iraqi offensive from Baghdad going west into Anbar.

Jordan is showing an active interest in Anbar. Will Jordanian boots follow in the spring?