Airstrikes And American Intervention In Iraq

With guest host Jane Clayson.

The U.S. returns to Iraq. Air strikes. Aid. We’ll look at the dimensions of the President’s intervention.

On Friday — the first case of U.S. military action in Iraq since our last troop pulled out in 2011. After a months-long blitzkrieg through Northern Iraq, the extremist group ISIS gave President Obama no choice. ISIS now controls cities, oil fields and more. They stood on the verge of literally wiping out some of Iraq’s ethno-religious minorities. Now, the U.S. is involved. Dropping bombs. Possibly could go on for months, the president says. So what’s in store for the future? This hour, On Point: the U.S. in Iraq, again.
-- Jane Clayson

Matt Bradley, Middle East reporter for The Wall Street Journal. (@MattMcBradley)

Deborah Amos, Middle East correspondent for NPR News. Author of: “Eclipse of the Sunnis: Power, Exile, and Upheaval in the Middle East." (@deborahamos)

Seth Jones, director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at the RAND Corporation. Professor at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies. (@sethgjones)

Gen. James Dubik, retired U.S. Army General, he oversaw the training of the Iraqi Army in 2007 and 2008 as the commander of Multi National Security Transition Command-Iraq. Senior fellow at the Institute for the Study of War.

New York Times: U.S. Warplanes Strike Militants in Iraq — "American warplanes struck Sunni militant positions in northern Iraq on Friday, the Pentagon and Kurdish officials said. The action returned United States forces to a direct combat role in a country it withdrew from in 2011."

The Long War Journal: Iraq's largest Christian town falls to Islamic State -- "The Islamic State has taken control of Qaraqosh, Iraq's largest Christian town, and other surrounding towns in an advance eastward into an area formerly held by the Peshmerga, the military force of the Kurdish Regional Government."

ABC News: Why Control of a Terrifying Dam in Iraq Is Life or Death for Half Million People —  "In addition to flooding concerns, the dam is also a “key source” of power and water for the surrounding area – making it a vital piece of infrastructure either way, another State Department spokesperson told ABC News Wednesday. An American intelligence source agreed and said that ISIS's potential control over and exploitation of power and water is a focus of U.S. intelligence community."