Iraq crisis: Obama to set out 'US offensive against IS'

WASHINGTON: -- US President Barack Obama is to set out his "game plan" against Islamic State militants in a speech on Wednesday.

Mr Obama, who has been criticised for failing to outline a strategy, told NBC TV the US would degrade IS, shrink their territory and "defeat them".

US jets bombed IS targets in western Iraq for the first time on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Arab League has vowed to take "all necessary measures" against IS, which has seized a huge amount of territory from Iraq and Syria.

The league gave its backing to a Security Council resolution passed last month calling on member states to stem the flow of weapons and money to extremists in Iraq and Syria.

BBC World Service Middle East editor Sebastian Usher says the Arab League's message will hearten Mr Obama, but the question now is whether its members will fully act on it, and act together rather than against each other.

Full story: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29100285


-- BBC 2014-09-08 BBC

Just bomb the back to the stoneage, oh they are already there.

Good morning Mr. president, have we woken up sir? now that heads are rolling on the desert

sand finally the message sinking in? how about another round of golf or two just to be sure

that you're not rushing in....

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Have to be just as barbaric, maybe even more - than ISIS. That's the only way to defeat them and anyone else using such cruel and unusual punishment towards innocent "victims of circumstance."

I hope this time Obama will be more effective than when he's faced with Putin.

I can't imagine these actions will be fully directed at IS. I propose, instead, that this is pretext to further weaken Syria directly and Russia by proxy. There's nothing in US recent counter terror policy that suggests anything other than further enabling jihadi expansion- nothing. I would love to be wrong but I'm not. IS is doing exactly what it was intended for.

I can't imagine these actions will be fully directed at IS. I propose, instead, that this is pretext to further weaken Syria directly and Russia by proxy. There's nothing in US recent counter terror policy that suggests anything other than further enabling jihadi expansion- nothing. I would love to be wrong but I'm not. IS is doing exactly what it was intended for.

You have alluded a few times to IS being the baby of the US. Other sources have suggested IS is the baby of the US and Israel.

You are suggesting that IS was born of the Syrian crisis, in the early days, as a tool to counter Russia. I don't discard the idea, however, shades of Afghanistan, Russia, Ossama Bin Laden, Mujahadin come to mind. The US is not that stupid, surely?

If I'm reading you right, and if you are right, surely then the US has to take full responsibility for the chimera it has created.

I can't imagine these actions will be fully directed at IS. I propose, instead, that this is pretext to further weaken Syria directly and Russia by proxy. There's nothing in US recent counter terror policy that suggests anything other than further enabling jihadi expansion- nothing. I would love to be wrong but I'm not. IS is doing exactly what it was intended for.

You have alluded a few times to IS being the baby of the US. Other sources have suggested IS is the baby of the US and Israel.

You are suggesting that IS was born of the Syrian crisis, in the early days, as a tool to counter Russia. I don't discard the idea, however, shades of Afghanistan, Russia, Ossama Bin Laden, Mujahadin come to mind. The US is not that stupid, surely?

If I'm reading you right, and if you are right, surely then the US has to take full responsibility for the chimera it has created.

The West most certainly created IS (along with Qatar and faction in SA, with Turkey's in depth support). Indeed, the iconic first pics of IS screaming south into Iraq in an impossibly long convoy of brand new Toyota trucks was brought to by the US State Dept buying those trucks for them. I believe IS was created for the very purposes you suggest. I have no real clue of there was Israeli involvement but something has stayed their hand regarding Iran. I just don't know. Yes, I think the US is this stupid because enabling this monster for any proxy ends will not easily return to sleep. Had the West actually had Islamic historians on the policy panels they would have realized that this cannot be wielded like a tool.

How does IS hurt the US exactly? OTOH, going to war with them helps Americans in many ways - gives them the righteous cause to rally the world, re-confirms their leadership, and keeps their military industrial complex busy, which means employment for all around. It's an opportunity, not a crisis.

First reactions, as I remember, were to leave Iraqis to slug it out themselves, their tribes are still behind evolutionary curve, living through something Europeans put behind them several centuries ago.

It's the beheadings of western hostages that brought IS back into the spotlight, but then it's been done by an apparent British convert, not an Arab. If we can just confine IS to massacring their own the world can live with them fairly comfortably. Also if they leave women out of it.

Cynical, yes, but as long as its off the front pages if can be quietly forgotten. We are going to have a similar deal with Taliban anyway, why not IS?

Quite honestly I wish Assad could regain control of Syria. Nothing wrong with dictator now and then to keep order among all the divergent groups within a country. Things were certainly more stable within Syria. No I am not forgetting the support he gave to groups operating outside Syria but now the situation is a real mess. Never did agree with Obama and others wanting to see Assad taken down and moderate muslim groups gain control. At least Syrian government was basically a secular one and not run by a bunch of Islamic lunatics.