Coalition Created

From USA Today:
"Obama says U.S. will 'take the fight' to Islamic State"

President Obama vowed Friday to "take the fight" to the Islamic State, as U.S. officials announced the formation of a coalition of 10 countries to combat the militant group. In remarks at the end of a NATO summit in Wales, Obama said the administration had first encouraged a more inclusive government in Iraq and then gathered intelligence to allow for air strikes. The next phase of the strategy "will allow us to take the fight to ISIL (Islamic State of Syria and the Levant), broaden the effort," Obama said. "We are going to degrade and ultimately defeat ISIL." Secretary of State John Kerry called the militants who have seized parts of Syria and Iraq "an ambitious, avowed genocidal, territorial-grabbing, Caliphate-desiring, quasi state within a regular army." In a joint statement, Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the coalition of nations would try to block foreign fighters from entering Iraq and Syria, cut the group's financing and bolster Iraq's military. The coalition consists of the U.S., U.K., France, Australia, Germany, Canada, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.
Kerry acknowledged that not all countries in the coalition would be comfortable directly supporting military actions. "Everybody can do something," he said. "People can contribute either ammunition or weapons or technical know-how or intel capacity." Obama said Washington would also attempt to bring Middle East partners into the coalition and that Kerry would travel to the region to gather support. "It is absolutely critical that we have Arab states, and specifically Sunni majority states, that are rejecting the kind of extremist nihilism that we're seeing out of ISIL," Obama said. Iraq is composed mainly of Shiites, while the Islamic State is made up of Sunni extremists. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently said the plan would include reaching out to Iraq's neighbors, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. The United States has conducted more than 120 air strikes against Islamic State targets since Aug. 8. The targeting has been limited to protecting Americans and supporting humanitarian relief efforts, and have been concentrated in northern Iraq. Four Iraqi divisions collapsed when Islamic State militants seized the Iraqi city of Mosul in June. Some of the remaining units are not considered effective. "We can support them (Iraqi troops) from the air, but ultimately we're going to need a strong ground game," said Obama, who has ruled out sending in U.S. combat troops. Michael O'Hanlon, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, said while he supports building a coalition, it shouldn't overshadow or delay the more critical immediate steps that need to be taken. They include Iraq seating a broad government in Baghdad, bolstering Iraq's armed forces and placing U.S. advisers with Iraqi units. "These are much more important than how many small European countries are nominally involved in a coalition," O'Hanlon said.

^ I am surprised that only 10 countries in the world have joined the fight against ISIS (especially considering that ISIS has opened threatened the majority of Arab/Muslim countries as well as places like Russia.) The First and Second Iraq Wars had more countries in their coalitions and the ISIS threat is even more dangerous to the world then Saddam was. I guess more countries will only join the fight after ISIS brings more death and violence and that shows that the world hasn't learned from it's collective history. You can't put your head in the sand and hope for the best when terrorists openly attack you and your citizens. ^


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/09/05/obama-islamic-state-iraq-nato-wales/15141527/