The Pentagon is pressing European and Arab allies to provide more troops and support for the war against the Islamic State group, hoping that the horror of the Paris attacks — and the fear more are coming — will compel them to get more deeply involved.
The call for help is driven by a hope to build on what the Obama administration sees as the beginnings of battlefield momentum in Iraq and Syria. It may also reflect a sense in the Pentagon that the campaign against the Islamic State group has advanced too slowly and requires more urgent and decisive military moves.
If our latest plan really does follow what I've long called for, I think this approach is fine.
We have been too slow.
And we do need ground allies to speed up an offensive.
Kill them. Defeat them. Discredit them.
With a little sense of urgency, please.
UPDATE: I find it mind bottling that until recently we had refused to strike the source of ISIL financial strength because we were afraid tanker truck drivers might be killed:
As Bloomberg Businessweek reports, the Obama administration realized just days ago that ISIS is one of the richest organizations in the world — with assets totaling billions.
And not just that $500 million a year from smuggled oil, which Team Obama has only now begun to truly target. (The Pentagon had declined to bomb moving oil trucks, for example, for fear of killing civilian drivers.)
In what sense prior to the Paris massacre did our leadership believe ISIL was "contained?"
