Tillerson: Coalition Countries Must Contribute More to ISIS War

Says Every Country Must Support 'Stabilization Efforts'

Speaking today at the anti-ISIS coalition meeting, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson talked up the growing US involvement in the war in both Iraq and Syria, and urged other countries in the coalition to contribute more themselves to the effort to defeat ISIS as well as “stabilization efforts” after ISIS is defeated.

“The United States will do its part,” Tillerson insisted, and while he directly sought to dismiss the idea that the US was to engage in nation-building in Iraq, his comments on the military goals for post-ISIS Iraq gave the impression that this was the idea in all but name.

Tillerson complained, however, that the US had been responsible for three-quarters of the military resources against ISIS, and that other countries would have to pay more of the $2 billion in “stabilization costs” that the US expects to incur over the course of 2017.

A lot of the nations which joined the anti-ISIS coalition did so primarily as a show of solidarity with the US, and not with the expectation of actually doing anything in the war itself. Tillerson seems keen to at least get them to pony up a bit of cash on the matter, but it’s not clear that’s going to happen either.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.