WITH less than two years left for President Barack Obama to complete his second term, it is unclear whether Congress would be willing to give him special powers to prosecute the war against the self-styled Islamic State.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to give a unanimous vote for a new authorisation of military force (AUMF) to strike the IS at what he called “a pivotal hour”.

Aware that the war against the IS is likely to outlive the Obama administration, the White House has asked for a three-year authorisation so that the change of government should not impede the prosecution of the war.

Take a look: War against IS may outlive Obama administration: Defence Secretary

Defence Secretary Ashton Carter also told the Senate committee that an “unmistakable message” should be given to the IS leaders that they could not divide and defeat “us”. This ‘us’ obviously includes America’s regional allies which have been fighting the IS hordes without having made any gains that could be called very significant.

Having begun their offensive from Iraq’s Anbar province, the IS militia has made stunning gains, capturing Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, and then going over to the offensive in Syria to reach Kobane on the Turkish border.

Since then there has been a sort of stalemate — in spite of the benefit of American airpower the anti-IS coalition has yet to break the militant organisation’s image of invincibility.

While the region’s strongest military power, Turkey, has decided to keep itself neutral, the members of the coalition seem to lack both firepower and the will to take on the IS. America’s greater involvement militarily runs the risk of proving counterproductive and perhaps could help the IS propaganda war.

Without the AUMF the US already has a massive military presence in the region; what the situation demands is not more war powers for the president but greater diplomatic efforts on America’s part to goad its regional allies into taking decisive military action, breaking the IS’s image of invincibility and reversing the tide of the battle.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2015

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