Excerpts:Obama considering ground war in Syria. 70,000 Syrian Kurds flee
into Turkey in 24 hours September 21, 2014

+++SOURCE: Al Arabiya News 21 Sept.’14:”Obama ‘ready for Syria ground war’
as Kurds flee”,by Staff Writer with Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Obama considering ground war after Kurdish flight to Turkey
FULL TEXT:The United States will have to resort to sending “some troops on
the ground” in Syria should President Barack Obama aim to destroy the
Islamic State or Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group, a senior U.S. Congressman told
this week’s Sunday Times.

The west is facing a “long, hard war” against ISIS, Republican Peter King
said, adding that Obama was reviewing his refusal to send ground troops
after military advisers said they would be needed.

These remarks come after 70,000 Syrian Kurds poured into Turkey since
Friday[19 Sept.] fleeing an offensive by ISIS militants in northeastern
Syria, the U.N.'s refugee agency said Sunday.

By ruling out sending troops to Syria, King said Obama is sounding an
“uncertain trumpet.”

Following General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
address to Congress in which he said that ground intervention may be
necessary; King said the “military message is getting through” to Obama.

“The president is going further than he ever thought he would,” he told the
Sunday Times, praising Obama’s decision to deploy 2,000 troops to Iraq.

King, a member of the House Committee on Homeland Security and chairman of
its counterterrorism and intelligence group, also said CIA officers and
Special Forces would need to be a part of a ground invasion.

“We should basically be putting as much fear into [ISIS] as possible, using
every weapon at our disposal,” King is quoted by British newspaper as
saying.

King disagrees with the White House’s stance that ISIS’ threat is contained
within the Middle East, citing the threat posed by Europeans, who do not
require an entry visa into the U.S., who have travelled to join the militant
group.

“That’s thousands of Europeans who can come right into America. It’s very
difficult, whether it’s the British, the French or anyone, to be monitoring
all of their people who are going back and forth [to the Middle East],” he
explained.

In a rare-show of agreement between the Democrats and the Republicans, the
U.S. Senate had approved a bill that would allow funding to arm and train
moderate opposition groups in Syria to enable them to fight against ISIS.
King voted for the bill, requested by Obama.


(With AFP)


+++MID-EAST Gazette 21 Sept.’14

70,000 Syrian Kurds flee into Turkey in 24 hours: UN
Last updated: Sunday, September 21, 2014 10:43 AM

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Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA