Leslie Gelb is a former New York Times correspondent and a fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations. Here he writes for The Daily Beast about what it will take to win against ISIS.
Gelb says there are only two outfits in the region which have the forces and the will to counter ISIS: Syria's Assad government and its ally, Iran. If we wish to win against ISIS without putting U.S. troops on the ground, we must work with these two less-than-desirable partners. Only they have the forces, and the track record of holding together in the face of attack.
Nobody here loves either Assad or the Ayatollahs of Iran, collectively they are a pack of scoundrels. That said, making common cause with ugly customers is nothing new, remember our anti-Hitler alliance with the monster Stalin in WW II.
I estimate Gelb is correct in his policy assessment.
