Rukmini Callimachi @rcallimachi
Foreign correspondent for The New York Times, focusing on al-Qaeda and ISIS. Previously, seven years in West Africa as bureau chief for The Associated Press
1/ Obama has done his homework when he says ISIS wants us to start a ground war, and will use our occupation of a foreign land to recruit
2/ ISIS propaganda is rife with references to scriptural prophecy regarding the last great battle of our time which will begin when
3/ The "Romans" (us) invade Dabiq, a town that still exists today in Syria. In scripture that battle sets the stage for the end of times
4/ leading to a showdown between "Muslims" (they think this refers only to them) and their enemies, in which the enemies are vanquished
5/ Remember it was in Dabiq that ISIS killed US hostage Peter Kassig, a former U.S. Army Ranger, as a way to underscore this point
6/ While it's hard to get our heads around this, I have spoken to enough ISIS fanboys & members by now to believe that they mean this
7/ ISIS *wants* U.S. boots on the ground, and wants us to engage them militarily. It would do wonders for their recruitment pitch
8/ Question is: Can fight against this group be won from the air & via proxy forces on the ground, ones which are divided ethnically?
9/ Here is what I saw in Hasaka, Syria in July where I was embedded with YPG militia fighting ISIS & what I saw in Sinjar, Iraq last month
10/ where I was embedded with the PKK and with the Peshmarga, two more local forces fighting ISIS: In both places ISIS folded quickly
11/ In Hasaka, I saw frontline jump several miles in a few days; In Sinjar, I saw airstrikes & local forces take city in 48 hours
12/ But here's the rub: The proxy forces *only* succeeded because of heavy U.S. air support & air support will need to continue indefinitely
13/ If we let up the freed areas will be reinfiltrated. Already there are reports that Hasaka, which was declared liberated when I was there
14/ has been re-infiltrated by ISIS cells. Second big problem: The proxy forces fighting ISIS are nearly all Kurdish (YPG, Peshmarga, PKK)
15/ And they will only fight for historically Kurdish areas. Last month, I went to a sandbagged position overlooking the city of Mosul, Iraq
16/ Mosul was so close, were I wearing running shoes I could have jogged there and back. But the Peshmarga commander holding the position
17/ explained to me that when invasion of Mosul occurs (believed to be many months away) he would only fight to roughly halfway in to city
18/ Why? Because that is the ethnic faultline, and as a Kurdish commander he did not think it would be appropriate to go further in.
19/ The cities that need to be taken back (Mosul, Raqqa etc) are mostly Sunni, not Kurdish, and the U.S. has yet to find a Sunni proxy force
Foreign correspondent for The New York Times, focusing on al-Qaeda and ISIS. Previously, seven years in West Africa as bureau chief for The Associated Press
1/ Obama has done his homework when he says ISIS wants us to start a ground war, and will use our occupation of a foreign land to recruit
2/ ISIS propaganda is rife with references to scriptural prophecy regarding the last great battle of our time which will begin when
3/ The "Romans" (us) invade Dabiq, a town that still exists today in Syria. In scripture that battle sets the stage for the end of times
4/ leading to a showdown between "Muslims" (they think this refers only to them) and their enemies, in which the enemies are vanquished
5/ Remember it was in Dabiq that ISIS killed US hostage Peter Kassig, a former U.S. Army Ranger, as a way to underscore this point
6/ While it's hard to get our heads around this, I have spoken to enough ISIS fanboys & members by now to believe that they mean this
7/ ISIS *wants* U.S. boots on the ground, and wants us to engage them militarily. It would do wonders for their recruitment pitch
8/ Question is: Can fight against this group be won from the air & via proxy forces on the ground, ones which are divided ethnically?
9/ Here is what I saw in Hasaka, Syria in July where I was embedded with YPG militia fighting ISIS & what I saw in Sinjar, Iraq last month
10/ where I was embedded with the PKK and with the Peshmarga, two more local forces fighting ISIS: In both places ISIS folded quickly
11/ In Hasaka, I saw frontline jump several miles in a few days; In Sinjar, I saw airstrikes & local forces take city in 48 hours
12/ But here's the rub: The proxy forces *only* succeeded because of heavy U.S. air support & air support will need to continue indefinitely
13/ If we let up the freed areas will be reinfiltrated. Already there are reports that Hasaka, which was declared liberated when I was there
14/ has been re-infiltrated by ISIS cells. Second big problem: The proxy forces fighting ISIS are nearly all Kurdish (YPG, Peshmarga, PKK)
15/ And they will only fight for historically Kurdish areas. Last month, I went to a sandbagged position overlooking the city of Mosul, Iraq
16/ Mosul was so close, were I wearing running shoes I could have jogged there and back. But the Peshmarga commander holding the position
17/ explained to me that when invasion of Mosul occurs (believed to be many months away) he would only fight to roughly halfway in to city
18/ Why? Because that is the ethnic faultline, and as a Kurdish commander he did not think it would be appropriate to go further in.
19/ The cities that need to be taken back (Mosul, Raqqa etc) are mostly Sunni, not Kurdish, and the U.S. has yet to find a Sunni proxy force
