Economist: The coalition may already be losing the fight against Islamic State

[eridani]

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21623669-coalition-may-already-be-losing-fight-against-islamic-state-will-and-way?fsrc=nlw|hig|9-10-2014|NA

America’s strategy is also beset with tensions. Although it wants to see Mr Assad go, it is reluctant to join that fight for now, partly because success in Iraq depends on persuading the government in Baghdad to become sufficiently inclusive to woo back the alienated Sunni tribes. And for that it needs the help of Iran, Mr Assad’s closest ally. Meanwhile, America’s collaboration with the Shia-led government has not made it any easier to win over suspicious Sunnis. While air strikes have helped the Kurds regain some ground from IS, security in Sunni-dominated Anbar province has continued to deteriorate. After IS fighters overran some Iraqi army bases and seized control of Abu Ghraib, within shelling range of Baghdad’s international airport, America sent in Apache attack helicopters to hit IS targets along the road that runs west of Baghdad to the IS stronghold of Falluja. Calling up the Apaches—not boots on the ground, perhaps, but certainly boots in the air—is an admission that high-flying fast jets have their limitations.

The coalition is also up against the law of unintended consequences. After its first big attack in Syria, it has targeted the oil refineries which help finance IS’s activities and other bits of IS infrastructure. But military action has also driven the dwindling band of “moderate rebels”—the ones that America aims to train and arm—into the embrace of jihadist groups, such as the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, which now portray the coalition as an anti-Sunni stooge of the Assad regime.

John Allen, a former general and Mr Obama’s special envoy for the coalition against IS, flew to Ankara this week in an effort to find common ground with the Turks. Nobody would claim there are easy answers for either Mr Obama or Mr Erdogan, but both are guilty of willing an end while withholding the means to secure it. In Mr Erdogan’s case, it is nonsense to claim he backs the effort to destroy IS while he leaves Kobane’s Kurds to be slaughtered. If the town falls, both Turkey’s reputation and its security will suffer a grievous blow. Better to act as a full member of the coalition and use the goodwill this generates to influence it from the inside. Mr Erdogan should use his troops to save Kobane—and give America permission to fly from the giant NATO airbase at nearby Incirlik.