Barack Obama Says America ‘Is Stopping’ Islamic State’s Progress in Iraq and Syria

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Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, a Middle East expert at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, said based on his own analysis of the Islamic State’s movements, any gains in Syria have been offset by losses in other regions.

For example, the United States has heavily bombed the city of Kobani, a Kurdish stronghold in northern Syria near the Turkish border. In fact, according to an analysis of Pentagon daily briefings by longtime Middle East reporter Robin Wright, 78 percent of all U.S. airstrikes in Syria have come on Kobani. Despite repeated efforts by the Islamic State to overtake the city, the United States through the air and Kurdish fighters on the ground have beaten back those attempts.

Reports from Jan. 26, after Obama’s speech, indicate Kurdish fighters have pushed the Islamic State almost entirely out of Kobani.

In some ways it makes sense that Syria is a murkier situation. For one, U.S. airstrikes there started a month and a half after the first American bombs dropped in Iraq. The U.S. military has openly admitted it has an “Iraq first” strategy, aimed at eliminating the Islamic State in Iraq, while shaping their movements in Syria and training vetted moderate forces there.

Iraq is also more familiar territory for the United States, after a decade of fighting there. And it has a government that is cooperating with the United States and supplying forces to fight.

The same cannot be said for Syria, which is embroiled in a civil war between President Bashar al-Assad (Obama has called for him to step down) and rebel groups.

Additionally, while the Islamic State may be partially halted in Syria, other extremist groups in the region have “gone on a rampage,” Gartenstein-Ross said.
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