JOINT BASE ANDREWS, Md. — Officials from the United States and its allies in the fight against the Islamic State hammered out details on Wednesday about how to stabilize and govern the cities of Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria — the last big strongholds held by the extremist Sunni militancy — in the event that Iraqi and Syrian fighters retake the cities in the coming months.
But even as the officials were mapping out the day-after scenarios, they faced a bigger question, particularly in the aftermath of an attempted coup in Turkey and an attack the Islamic State says it inspired in France: Is the United States-led coalition winning the battle but losing the larger war?
“ISIS has suffered from significant setbacks on the ground, in Ramadi, Hit, Falluja, Qaiyara and Manbij,” the French defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, told the group of officials at Joint Base Andrews, Md., using another name for the Islamic State, also known as ISIL. “However, we are aware that the fight will not stop in Iraq or Syria.”
In fact, the officials at the meeting said they were looking for ways to diminish the Islamic State’s reach around the world, particularly the ideology that many say has driven an increase in terrorist attacks in Europe, West Africa and the United States.
Officials said they were looking for additional ways to reduce the group’s power on social media, including ads and messaging as a counterweight to an Islamic State campaign encouraging people to take up arms against Western targets.
“We need to destroy the fact and the idea that there can be a state” belonging to the group, Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter said at a news conference after the meeting. “But that’s not the entirety of the campaign.”
He added that battlefield successes in Iraq and Syria had been “necessary, but that’s not going to be enough.”
Gen. Joseph L. Votel, who oversees American military operations in the Middle East as the head of United States Central Command, said that much of the talk at the meeting had focused on how to stabilize Mosul, assuming Iraqi forces can take the city back from the Islamic State. “What happens after the defeat of ISIL in Mosul, the stabilization and reconstruction plans?” he asked. “It’s a large city.”
His comments reflected a concern shared by many officials: Unless the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government and its Western allies figure out a way to convince Sunnis and, to a lesser extent, Iraq’s Kurdish population, that they have a stake in the government, any battlefield successes in Mosul and other Islamic State strongholds will be fleeting. Such setbacks could, as before, give rise to another Sunni extremist group.
The Turkish defense minister was invited to the meeting but did not make the trip, as the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan continued firing and suspending thousands of soldiers and civil servants for suspected complicity in the attempted coup last week.
Mr. Carter said that he had spoken by telephone on Tuesday with his Turkish counterpart, Fikri Isik, and that Mr. Isik had said he regretted he could not attend but had sent the Turkish ambassador to Washington. Mr. Carter said the United States would continue to use Incirlik Air Base in Turkey as a staging area for American-led strike missions against the Islamic State.
“I was glad to know that he was safe and the ministry is functioning, and he assured me that it was,” Mr. Carter said. “On the military side, he assured me first, very clearly, that nothing that happened over the weekend will interrupt their support for our collective counter-ISIL campaign.”
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Britain’s defense secretary, Michael Fallon, said his country would double its number of troops in Iraq by adding 200 medics and engineers to the effort. Mr. Fallon also said that Britain would seek to “intensify our efforts in combating this poisonous ideology,” although he did not say how.
He said that Britain’s recent vote to leave the European Union did not mean that it was withdrawing from the effort to fight the Islamic State.
“We’re probably doing more than any country except the United States,” he said.
Post A Comment:
0 comments: