WASHINGTON: The United States may soon launch a broad bombing campaign against the Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), militant group in Syria but so far has no plan to send ground troops.

The White House is not revealing how and when it plans to launch this campaign but earlier this week President Barack Obama authorised US spy plans to collect data about IS bases in Syria.

But the United States enters yet another undeclared war in the Middle East with a major handicap, its unwillingness to coordinate its actions with the Syrian government.

In interviews to various media outlets, former and current US military and defence officials warned that the airstrikes alone – no matter how effective they may be – cannot win this war.

The experts acknowledged that because of the unpopularity of the Afghan and Iraq wars, no US administration would send American ground troops into Syria. That’s why, they argued, the United States would be better off coordinating its action with the Syrian government.

This would have allowed Syrian government troops to move into a militant stronghold after a US strike and eliminate the survivors.

On Monday, Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem offered to “cooperate and coordinate” with any countries, including the United States, in fighting the Islamic State group as long as they consulted Damascus before launching the offensive. But the United States rejected the offer.

“When American lives are at stake, when we’re talking about defending our interests, we’re not looking for the approval of the Assad regime,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

What prevents the Obama administration from working with the Syrian government is the fear that it may annoy the region’s Sunni majority. During the Syrian uprising, the United States vigorously supported Syrian opposition groups against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

But the support was quickly withdrawn when US intelligence sources informed Washington that Al Qaeda affiliates dominate the opposition. Yet, some key officials in the Obama administration noted that the withdrawal of US support to the opposition had caused heartburns in the region’s Sunni majority, including among some old US allies like Saudi Arabia.

There is also an influential lobby in Washington, which believes that any coordination with the Syrian government will further strengthen Iran in the region and urges the Obama administration not to do so.

President Obama also faces a major constitutional issue: Congressional permission for ordering military strikes into a sovereign state. A year ago when the president decided to go to Congress for permission to bomb Syria, he did not get the support he needed and was left to scramble a diplomatic solution. Experts in Washington warn that the lawmakers will not approve yet another military offensive before the congressional elections, scheduled in November. The lawmakers believe that the American people have very little appetite for war and that’s why they will be reluctant to approve a war resolution so close to the elections.

But last week’s beheading of an American journalist, James Foley, by IS militants in Syria can help the lawmakers overcome their fear of an election defeat.

The beheading caused anger, grief and a strong urge for retaliation against the militants. It also generated a wave of sympathy for the bereaved family.

The US media also reported that the IS militants were still holding at least three other American journalists and had also threatened to kill them if the United States did not stop airstrikes at their targets in Iraq.

On Wednesday, all American channels telecast the appeal of the anguished mother of those journalists, pleading the terrorists to spare the life of his son Steven Sotloff and set him free.

“He’s an innocent journalist,” Shirley Sotloff said in a videotaped address to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi that was broadcast on the Al Arabiya Network. This has obviously softened the strong public repulsion to the war, created by the long US engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hours after Mr Foley’s beheading, President Obama declared that the United States would launch retaliatory attacks on militant targets in Syria. “America does not forget. Our reach is long. We are patient. Justice will be done,” he said.

So there is no doubt in Washington that the president will take military action against Syria, with or without congressional permission.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2014