To Beat #ISIS, Focus on Syria
By JULIEN BARNES-DACEY and #DANIEL_LEVY SEPT. 1, 2014
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/02/opinion/to-beat-isis-focus-on-syria.html
LONDON — The battlefield successes of ISIS in Iraq, and renewed American military action there, have turned attention back to Syria. It was there that ISIS originally ramped up its appeal while fighting against the Syrian government. Today, ISIS is headquartered in Syria and uses Syrian territory to regroup and resupply.
In Western capitals there is now a renewed debate about how to deal with Syria’s brutal ruler, Bashar al-Assad. The policy options being discussed have largely been boiled down to a binary choice: jump into bed with Mr. Assad to defeat ISIS, or double down on the halfhearted existing policy of building a strong Sunni opposition.
But exclusive reliance on either of these tracks will likely fail. ISIS’ advances in Syria can’t be contained without the force that is most able to challenge it: Mr. Assad’s military. And an approach that lacks sufficient support from alienated Sunnis won’t hold back the ISIS tide over the long term.
Western policy needs to move beyond this false dichotomy.
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Both #Iran and Saudi Arabia have been accused of stoking the ISIS phenomenon — Iran through its support for Mr. Assad, whose crackdown has had a radicalizing effect; and Saudi Arabia through the less-accountable elements of its checkbook relationship with armed opposition groups in Syria — not to mention the ways Saudi Wahabbi doctrine has been deployed to militant ends.