Obama’s updated strategy on ISIS: A grandiose role for the Kurds

http://www.turkishweekly.net/2015/07/10/comment/obama-s-updated-strategy-on-isis-a-grandiose-role-for-the-kurds



Obama’s updated strategy on ISIS: A grandiose role for the Kurds
MEHMET YEGIN
July 10, 2015

The Obama administration has updated its strategy towards ISIS. The updates were announced by President Obama on July 6 at the Pentagon and were delineated by U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter one day later during the Senate Armed Services Committee’s hearing on the counter-ISIS strategy. The update introduces additional precautions and proposes new solutions to the problems faced in the implementation of the already existing four-pillar approach. Supplementing the items already outlined in the original strategy, Secretary Carter identified “nine synchronized lines of efforts” that are hoped to further realize the aim of degrading and destroying ISIS.

While the update augments the U.S.’s posture in the fight against ISIS, the core components of the strategy have remained unchanged. With the update, the U.S. has voiced its expectation that local actors take the initiative on the ground in a clearer way. Thus, the updated strategy designates the air campaign against ISIS as a mission that is supportive of motivated ground forces rather than a mission that intends to lead confronting ISIS. With this approach, the Obama administration has focused on the homeland security dimension in the fight against ISIS, urging local/regional actors themselves to combat the group in the Middle East. Nonetheless, this approach is by no means problem free.

Kurds at the Center of the Strategy

The U.S., whether deliberately or passively, is ascribing a grandiose role for the Kurds in Iraq and Syria considering the current dynamics unfolding on the ground. In this regard, the main motto of the updated strategy is to work with “willing and capable partners” on the ground. More importantly, it is expected that the ground forces not only push back ISIS fronts but also provide governance in the territories taken from the organization. This seems consistent with the U.S.’s overall approach to prevent the disintegration of governing structures. However, in reality this approach means that Kurds are granted implicit U.S. support in expanding the amount of territory under their control and the permanence of their endeavors to govern them.

This assertion primarily stems from the fact that the only qualified actor that meets the criteria set out in the strategy update is the Kurds. In Iraq, it is only the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) that is capable of taking on this role as it possesses coherent ground forces and has received arms support from more than 12 countries. The Iraqi Army has repeatedly failed in its endeavor to stem the ISIS tide and its sectarian and professional deficiencies are becoming increasingly obvious. Furthermore, in this context, it has been expected by many that Sunni Arabs in Iraq would be recruited and armed by Baghdad. Yet considering the current sectarian atmosphere it is not logical to expect the Baghdad administration to recruit a high number of Sunnis and then to properly equip them with weapons.