It is well known that thousands of extremists all over the world, including many from the United States, Europe and Australia, have joined IS as fighters.

In contrast, the allies who are supposed to be fighting the Islamic State together to accomplish mutual goals are working at cross purposes and harboring different designs. Kobani is in danger of falling to IS because Turkey will not lend a hand. Instead, Turkey cut the Kurdish defenders off from reinforcements, fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition moving across the border because it is deeply suspicious of the Kurdish militia defending Kobani (known as YPG) and its political counterpart, the Democratic Union Party, as they are the Syrian branch of the Kurdish Workers' Party, which has fought for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey since 1984.

Because Turkey refuses to help the Syrian Kurds, there have been protests, some of which have turned violent, in many parts of Turkey. The breach between Turks and Kurds in Turkey may become irreconcilable if Kobani falls to IS.

Turkey's president Recep Tayyip Erdogan would prefer IS to Bashar al-Assad, if he had to choose between the two. As a condition for Turkey to play a stronger role in the fight against IS, Erdogan has asked for a buffer zone and a no flight zone in northern Syria. This is obviously meant to hurt Assad, since IS has no air force. But Erdogan is not likely to get either, at least in the near future.

Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey says that IS is harder to target because it scatters its forces among the population. In fact, "pin prick" air strikes have never been effective against semi-guerrilla forces.

U.S. top brass has said that they will depend on the Iraqi government and its security forces on the ground. There are no such forces in Syria, so they plan to train and equip "vetted," "moderate" Syrian rebels from the Free Syrian Army, which has a known history of en masse defections to IS. It is estimated that it will take three years to train up to 15,000 ground troops, that will ultimately fight both IS and the Syrian Government.

General Dempsey thinks that may not be enough. He said the U.S. may eventually have to commit boots on the ground, even though Obama insists that will never happen. He cannot afford to renege on his campaign promise and re-invade Iraq.

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

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