At a conference in Washington D.C. General Martin Dempsey, the current Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff stated through Military Times that the war against the terrorist group ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) could take as long as 4 years.
Though the U.S. and the coalition has been carrying out various military operations an air strikes since this summer, the Islamic State militants still reign supreme with a great deal of territory in northern Iraq and Eastern Syria under their control. General Dempsey also explained that it would take even longer to train and prepare the Iraqi and Syrian government forces for proper combat.
As of now, the U.S. military has 1,400 military men and women stationed in Iraq with an additional 1,500 scheduled to be dispatched in the next month. Besides the air strikes that are being launched from the aircraft carrier stationed in the Arabian Gulf, the American military personnel in Iraq are simply working as advisors for the Iraqi and Kurdistan forces that are continuing to lead the ground battle against ISIS.
There is somewhat of a tension among the nations who are fighting the militants as well. For instance, Turkey has refused to allow the U.S. military to use its air force bases in order to save travel time for their war planes into Syria and Iraq. The reason being that the Turkish government’s priority was to train the Syrian rebels who were fighting to bring down the Syrian government.
On the 16th, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that President Barrack Obama had rejected the proposal to join with Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, in operating air strikes within Syria. At the time, President Obama was at a meeting in Australia and had stated that Syria has been undergoing civil war for the past 4 years, and that President al-Assad has lost legitimacy from the Syrian citizens. He noted that possibility that joining with Syria’s government might cause more Sunni Muslims to join ISIS as Jihadists.
al-Assad however, urged that there is a need for true global cooperation in these dire times, reports SANA. The statement was made right after President Obama had rejected his proposal.
Meanwhile, the whole world is still on the alert for more people travelling to the Middle East to fight for the Islamic State as militants. While air strikes in Iraq continue, thre is still very little progress.
