(NBC News) The Pentagon and the White House agreed “war” is the right word to describe the new Obama effort to destroy ISIS, the self-styled Islamic state.
But Obama’s plan for a coalition, at least so far, is not working out as the President promised Wednesday night.
In Turkey on Friday, recruiting for the coalition, Secretary of State Kerry again struck out; the Turks will not bomb or send troops.
Kerry claims he’s not worried.
Ten Arab nations have joined the coalition, but not one has agreed to send troops or warplanes. So far only France, whose president was in Iraq on Friday, has agreed to join the air war.
But some analysts say that a coalition is not the key to beating ISIS.
Iraqi ground forces have to regroup and force ISIS out of the cities it captured so American air power can decimate the ISIS army.
The CIA estimates the ISIS army is growing fast and has has 20 to 31 and a half thousand fighters. They say new fighters have been attracted by the group’s victories and by its brutality.
But that’s less than the group once had in Iraq when it called itself Al Qaeda.
However big the enemy or the coalition, the Obama goal remains ISIS destruction.
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