The Obama Administration has been desperate over the past few weeks to cobble together a massive “coalition” of nations to fight ISIS, an attempt to convince the American public that the war is not going to be “America’s war” to fight alone.
Over 40 nations have now signed on, with 26 of them expected to show up at the Paris summit Monday to talk ISIS. Apart from showing up at summits, it’s not clear what most of them are actually going to do.
A handful of Sunni Arab nations, along with France, have committed to airstrikes against ISIS, while Australia is planning to commit 600 ground troops to the war. Australian PM Tony Abbott insists the deployment is open-ended.
But the Sunni Arab nations, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, aren’t welcome to launch strikes, according to Iraq’s president. Iran, a nation Iraq actually does want in the coalition, isn’t welcome according to the US.
Nations that have been hyped for their involvement, like Britain and Turkey, have both indeed signed on to the coalition, but neither seems to be planning to do anything. Turkey has insisted they will play no role in the ISIS war itself, and will restrict their involvement to humanitarian aid shipments.
That appears true across many of the members of the coalition, who were willing to put their name down on paper, but don’t want to actually get involved in the ISIS war, which promises to be long and bloody. The administration, which chiefly wants them on board just to pad their stats, is fine with that, knowing either way the US is the one doing all the fighting.
Yeah, Sunni regimes are going to sign up to kill Sunni terrorist.
The Sunni tribes of Iraq want a third of the land and oil, a solution that could be a permanent fix for all that ails such a war prone society. But, no says our Empire for we must bomb, kill and kill some more as this is “in our best interest.” For we must maximize pleasure by maximizing profit, especially the profit in trading war materials for oil, what with imperialism being our glory and our destine.
The Saudi's have no interest in "cutting off the head of this snake", after all, that is their snake. Sunni "boots-on the ground" ? They already are; it is named ISIS!
Has anyone found a list of who these "40+" actually are? Just curious. Or is it just a number to impress the too easily impressed American people?
I've been looking, curmudgeon, and it seems to be so far a big secret. But you can bet your bippy that there's a whole bunch of little Pacific islands included. Opinion-wise, exactly what each of the 40 are going to actually DO to stop ISIS would be even more interesting to know.
But as you say, it's most likely a number to impress.
OK, how man of you are willing to distribute evaporated milk, diapers, and Kleenex to the victims of ISIS? (30 hands go up)
OK, how many are willing to show up for this afternoon's assault on that village over there, the one inhabited by masked men with big knives and AK-47s?
(40 seconds pass)
Come on, guys. Who wants to be first? How about you, Australia? Do it for the USA?