WAR ON ISIS - The Turkish Border

My answer, NO.  It will require boots-on-the-ground, the question is whose boots.

And Turkey may be foolish to think ISIS will stop there.  Turkey can be on the ISIS list force conversion.

"Can air power alone stop advance of Islamic State militants?" PBS NewsHour 10/8/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  President Obama’s meeting at the Pentagon today comes as there are considerable doubts over whether the U.S.-led coalition can stop and roll back the Islamic State group’s advances.

To help assess the campaign against the militant group, I’m joined by Michele Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense for policy during the first term of the Obama administration.  She’s now chief executive officer at the Center for a New American Security.  And Colonel Derek Harvey, he was an intelligence officer and special adviser to the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.  He’s now director for the Global Initiative on Civil Society and Conflict at the University of South Florida.

And welcome both of you back to the program.

Colonel Harvey, to you first.

The reports we had earlier in the program are that it looks as if the town of Kobani on Syria’s border with Turkey may be about to fall to the Islamic State.  Is that what you’re hearing and, if so, how big a loss is this?

COL. DEREK HARVEY (RET.), Former Army Intelligence Officer:  Well, I think that’s what is happening in Kobani.

And it’s unfortunate for that population there.  There is significant offensive activity by the Islamic State.  They’re using combined arms.  That’s tanks, mortars, artillery and infantry.  And they’re coming in on the city from at least three directions.

It is expected to fall some time in the next three to five days, according to the sources that I’m talking to.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  And how big a loss, Michele Flournoy, if this happens?

MICHELE FLOURNOY, Former Defense Department Official:   I think it’s worsened because it is right up against the Turkish border, and that will ISIS that much more room to operate along the border and possibly even do cross-border incursions in some areas.

But — so it’s of concern, but I think we have to be realistic in our expectations.  This campaign, no matter how effective, is not going to be able to stop every ISIS movement or to roll them back in every place.  Where we need to focus is really on the most strategic areas and, importantly, building up the ground forces that can retake and hold territory.  Airpower alone cannot do that.