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Daily News Brief August 8, 2014 |
Top of the Agenda
Obama Authorizes Airstrikes in Iraq
U.S. president Barack Obama authorized limited air strikes against ISIS militants in northern Iraq (NYT)
to prevent the killing of religious minorities and any threats to U.S.
personnel and interests in Baghdad and the Kurdish capital of Erbil. The
United States began to drop relief supplies (Reuters)
to Yazidi refugees fleeing Islamist militants. The move marks the first
time the United States has taken such steps for military action since the militants
began an offensive in June that overran swathes of northern and western
Iraq and declared a "caliphate" in captured areas of Iraq and Syria.
Analysis
"Mr.
Obama made a wise policy call, and showed proper caution, by keeping
his commitment not to reintroduce American ground troops in Iraq, but humanitarian assistance for the imperiled civilians was necessary," writes the editorial board of the New York Times.
"The
United States could not stand by and watch these monsters cause 40,000
Yazidis to die of thirst up on that mountain—though it could, and did,
watch as Mosul was made Christian-rein. Failure to act
then was a sin of omission. Had there been no intervention now, that
would have effectively been a sin of commission," writes John Podhoretz
for Commentary.
"This means that U.S. warplanes are likely to be engaged on at least two fronts:
in the northwest, protecting the Yazidis and the U.S. military
transport planes that will deliver the humanitarian assistance; and in
the northeast, engaging the ISIS fighters between Mosul and Erbil,"
writes John Cassidy for The New Yorker.
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