Victory against ISIS requires not simply more military muscle but diplomacy. On the Iraq front that means complementing more effective military and political action in Sunni areas with diplomacy involving Iran, Turkey, the Arab states and Baghdad.
The Obama Administration’s policy to defeat ISIS is the right mission, but defeating it requires three elements: offensive combat; a “day after’” plan for immediate relief, security, and governance in areas liberated, and longer term political solutions in Syria and Iraq that will defuse internal conflicts involving Sunni Arabs and Kurds; and diplomatic arrangements to facilitate the first two components.
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