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COMMENT
MIDDLE EAST
U.S. Scrambles to Help Iraq Fight Off
Militants as Baghdad Is Threatened
By MARK LANDLER and ERIC SCHMITTJUNE 12, 2014
Photo

I dont rule out anything, President Obama said of Iraq, speaking Thursday in the Oval Office.CreditGabriella
Demczuk/The New York Times
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WASHINGTON The White House, confronted by an unexpected crisis on a battlefield it thought it
had left behind, scrambled Thursday to reassure Iraq that it would help its beleaguered army fend off
militants who have overrun much of the country and now threaten Baghdad.
Recognizing what one official described as an urgent emergency situation, President Obama and his
aides moved on multiple fronts. A senior official said the president was actively considering American
airstrikes against the militant groups. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. telephoned Prime Minister
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to express American support. And Pentagon officials briefed lawmakers about
what one senator later described as a grave situation.
Continue reading the main story
RELATED COVERAGE


Choosing Rebels Over Army, Iraqis Head HomeJUNE 12,
2014



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on BaghdadJUNE 12, 2014



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Russia Sees American Adventurism in Iraq Behind
Current ConflictJUNE 12, 2014

In his only public comments on Iraq, Mr. Obama said his national security staff was meeting around
the clock. But the frenzy of activity has yet to produce a tangible American response attesting to
how swiftly this crisis has erupted and how it has left a stunned White House groping for a response.
Continue reading the main storyVideo

PLAY VIDEO|0: 39
Boehner Slams Obamas Response to Iraq
Boehner Slams Obamas Response to Iraq
House Speaker John A. Boehner commented on the crisis in Iraq on Thursday and attacked President Obamas
response to the escalating violence, saying the president was taking a nap.
CreditAlex Wong/Getty Images
The chaotic situation in Iraq showed no sign of letup on Thursday as emboldened Sunni militants who
seized two important Iraqi cities this week moved closed to Baghdad while Kurdish forces poured into
the strategic northern city of Kirkuk after it was evacuated by government forces.
Airstrikes were only one of several options being weighed by the president, according to the senior
official, who cautioned that the president had made no decision on military action. The airstrikes, the
official said, could be delivered either by unmanned drones or warplanes.
I dont rule out anything, Mr. Obama said, speaking in the Oval Office after meeting with Prime
Minister Tony Abbott of Australia, because we do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are
not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter. He said he was watching the
fast-moving events with a lot of concern.
For Mr. Obama, ordering airstrikes would be a symbolically momentous step, returning the United
States to a combat role in Iraq two and a half years after he pulled out the last American soldier,
ending the nations involvement in a war that left more than 4,400 Americans dead.
The possibility of coming to Iraqs rescue raises a host of thorny questions for Mr. Obama, who has
steadfastly resisted being drawn into sectarian strife in Iraq or its neighbor, Syria. Republican
lawmakers accused him of being caught flat-footed by the crisis and of hastening this outcome by not
leaving an adequate American force behind after 2011.
Reports that Iran has sent its paramilitary Quds Force to help the struggling Iraqi Army battle the
militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, raised the awkward possibility that the United
States could find itself allied with Iran in shoring up an unpopular Shiite government in Baghdad. The
White House said it was aware of the reports, but did not confirm them.
Mr. Obama insisted he had been monitoring the threat from Sunni militant groups for several
months. The United States, he said, had supplied Iraq with military equipment and intelligence.
Until now, though, the White House has rebuffed several requests from Mr. Maliki for the United
States to conduct airstrikes against the staging areas of the militant groups, north and west of
Baghdad, where extremists have flowed across the border from Syria.
In the past two days, Mr. Obama acknowledged, it was clear that the United States needed to go
further. Iraqs going to need more help, he said. Its going to need more help from us, and its going
to need more help from the international community.
In our consultations with the Iraqis, he said, there will be some short-term, immediate things that
need to be done militarily. But this should be also a wake-up call for the Iraqi government.
The president said the crisis confirmed his decision articulated in a speech at the United States
Military Academy to reorient American counterterrorism strategy from fighting Al Qaeda in
Afghanistan and Pakistan to a more diffuse set of terrorist groups, some linked with Al Qaeda, that
stretch from the Middle East to North Africa.
On Capitol Hill, however, the images of Baghdad under threat from Islamic militants fanned a
political firestorm. Speaker John A. Boehner warned that the progress in Iraq was clearly in
jeopardy, and said Mr. Obama had been caught taking a nap.
Continue reading the main story
Cities Controlled by the Militants
UPDATED JUNE 12
TWEET
Having occupied crucial sections of Syria over the past year and more recently seizing vast areas of Iraq, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria controls
territory greater than many countries and now rivals Al Qaeda as the worlds most powerful jihadist group.Related Maps and Multimedia
Sources: Caerus Associates, Long War Journal

TURKEY






Hasakah








Erbil
Mosul


Aleppo






Raqqa




Kirkuk












Deir al-Zour




IRAN


Hama
Baiji






Homs


Tikrit










LEBANON


S Y R I A






Samarra


Dhuluiyah






Ramadi


Damascus












Baghdad


Falluja
I R A Q


ISRAEL
ISIS control of cities
Recent attacks
Partial or complete
Contested
JORDAN
Basra
KUWAIT
Democrats said the strife was the result of former President George W. Bushs misguided invasion of
Iraq in 2003. One act of violence provokes another act of violence, said the Representative Nancy
Pelosi, the House minority leader. And here we are.
Senators on the Armed Services Committee emerging from a two-hour, classified briefing on Iraq
appeared stunned by what they heard from a senior Pentagon official, two senior Defense Intelligence
Agency analysts and the three-star general in charge of security cooperation at the American Embassy
in Baghdad.
Continue reading the main story
UNDEFINED COMMENTS
Share your thoughts
Share your thoughts
Needless to say, its a grave situation, said Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat.
Continue reading the main story
RECENT COMMENTS
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A State Department spokeswoman said American contractors working on foreign military sales had
been moved from their base north of Baghdad by their companies. But diplomats and staff members
at the embassy in Baghdad and consulates elsewhere in Iraq had not been moved, according to the
spokeswoman, Jen Psaki.
Republicans and some Democrats sharply criticized the Obama administration for not having a
credible response to help the Iraqi government.
There is no strategy, said Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, in an interview. The
president said he would not rule out anything. Is that a strategy? Is that a way to counter ISIS? he
said, using the acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, demanded that the administration provide
Congress with both short-term and longer-term options. We need a proposal and recommendation
from the administration, and so far it has not been provided, he said.
Mr. Blumenthal also castigated Mr. Maliki for failing to include Sunnis as full partners in his
government, a failure other critics have said has pushed Sunnis into the hands of Islamic militant
groups like ISIS.
Most lawmakers expressed caution in committing to American airstrikes against militant targets, as
Mr. Maliki has requested. But some said it might be the only way to give the Iraqi security services
time to reorganize and blunt the militants offensive.
It might be the only way we can give some support so they can regroup, so the Iraqi Army can get
itself together, said Senator Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat.
CONTINUE READING THE MAIN STORYWRITE A COMMENT
While experts said leaving behind a residual force of several thousand American troops would have
helped the Iraqi Army tactically, some doubt it would have prevented the sectarian forces that are
threatening to tear the country into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish blocs.
In the long run, Im not sure it would have made a difference with the forces pushing for the
disintegration of Iraq, said Gen. Amos Yadlin, a retired head of Israeli military intelligence who is
now the executive director of Israels Institute of National Security Studies.
Andrew J. Tabler, an expert on Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that
American airstrikes would help them deal with the symptoms of the disease, but the disease is rooted
in Syria.
Michael R. Gordon contributed reporting.
A version of this article appears in print on June 13, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S.
Scrambles to Help Iraq Fight Off Militants. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe
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