Former Ambassador Says Airstrikes Not Enough To Defeat ISIS
BOSTON (CBS) – The Unites States and Arab allies have carried out more than 200 airstrikes in Syria since Monday night.
The Pentagon says the assault is just the beginning. The battle plan targeted ISIS and the Al-Qaida linked group Khorasan which was said to be planning imminent attacks on America.
Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Nicholas Burns told WBZ that a "coalition is critical" among Arab nations in the region if the United States hopes to be successful fighting ISIS.
"This has to be their fight," said Burns, who is now a Professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. "They should not expect the American people or the American military to take this whole problem on our shoulders and pay for it and man it ourselves."
Burns says the battle against ISIS is ultimately winnable, but "it is going to be years in the making, it is going to require enormous patience," and it will be very expensive.
"I think Americans will be safer if we are able to contain and ultimately to defeat ISIS," he added.
Burns thinks airstrikes won't be enough to ensure victory. Again, he argues, anything more needs to be accomplished by a coalition.
"We can't defeat [ISIS]," he said. "It is too well funded, it is too well organized, it's too big. There may be 20 to 30 thousand fighters in ISIS to take on from the air alone, so you need a ground component. I don't think that will be or should be the American military on the ground."
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