The War Against ISIS: Operation Fingers Crossed
History offers a checkered record on its chances of success
Mark Thompson
6:28 PM ET
For more than a week, U.S. and allied warplanes have bombed targets inside Syria every day. While that may seem an awful lot like war to those being pounded, it hardly feels that way to most Americans. When U.S. troops are in combat, on the ground, theyre generally accompanied by reporters, who in recent conflicts have been able to fill TV screens and the Internet with up-close scenes of the action.
But when the U.S. elects to conduct an air war, Americans generally witness the action from airborne targeting cameras, or social-media posts from the ground. Both of those, of course, have their own problems: footage released by the Pentagon has been editedscrubbed, if you preferand represents only a tiny fraction of what was recorded. The provenance and, indeed, the authenticity of cell phone videos allegedly capturing what is happening on the ground gives a similarly incomplete, and often suspect, picture of whats happening.
The U.S. militarys assault against targets belonging to two groups of Islamic militants inside Syria has become almost background noise for most Americans. Granted, the airmen involved are at risk, but the nation generally seems to focus on warand holds its breathonly when U.S. ground troops are involved in combat.
For Americans, thats a double-edged sword. For sure, it cuts down on the risk to U.S. military personnel. But it also makes accomplishing President Obamas declared missionthe destruction of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and the Khorasan Grouptougher to achieve.
Thats why Pentagon officials have made clear that the aerial campaign is open-ended and likely to be lengthy. Inflicting real pain on the jihadists is going to require ground troops, and U.S. officials say theyre more than a year away from training the first batch of 5,000 to take on an ISIS force estimated at 30,000.
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http://time.com/3442296/war-isis-operation-fingers-crossed/