U.S. airstrikes that began today over Syria targeting the group known as the Islamic State are not likely to completely wipe out ISIS but can have varying consequences, West Virginia University experts say.

President Barack Obama announced earlier this month that the U.S. would launch air strikes over Syria in addition to airstrikes over Iraq, saying that the U.S. would “hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” including the Islamic State, which he referred to as ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), and is often known as ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

Scott Crichlow, chair of the WVU Department of Political Science, specializes in U.S. foreign policy and Middle Eastern politics. He said that while the president used aggressive language to communicate his intentions in the region, it’s not likely that the Islamic State will be totally destroyed by the actions he announced.

Dave Hauser, a teaching assistant professor who focuses on international conflict, said that the American public has been applying pressure to the government to act on the issue following the beheadings of two American journalists, which put faces on the issue as the public heard from grieving families.

“That sort of crystallized for the American public a sense of outrage and of ‘doing something about it,’” Hauser said.

What may not have been as clear to the public is that the U.S. has been doing something for the last several weeks with airstrikes in Iraq and hundreds of special forces advisers to Iraqi troops, Hauser said.

Both professors emphasize that the consequences of the decision can vary.

Obama referred to the group as a threat, though Crichlow said the threat is widely regarded as regional. A more international threat could come in the form of an organization like al-Qaeda concerned that the Islamic State is positioning itself as a leader among militant organizations.

Because the situation is so complex, there are a multitude of consequences such as worsening the Syrian civil war, weakening the Iraqi government, prompting the Islamic State to press into other nations in the Middle East, Hauser said.

“It’s a hugely complex situation,” Hauser said, “and I think that president Obama’s small changes to policy were the best he could find, given how many different actors with different interests there are.”

Crichlow and Hauser are available to offer commentary to the media. Crichlow can be reached at Scott.Crichlow@mail.wvu.edu and Hauser can be reached at David.Hauser@mail.wvu.edu.

-WVU-

dm/9/23/14

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