Inside Story

Can Obama defeat IS in Syria?

Shying away from a previous policy, the US will carry out attacks inside Syria

President Barack Obama said he is prepared to order airstrikes on Syrian territory as part of what he called an expanded “counter-terrorism” plan to confront the Islamic State group that is operating in Syria and Iraq.
 
Obama’s decision to launch attacks inside Syria, a country embroiled in a three-year civil war, marked a turnabout for the president, who shied away a year ago from airstrikes to punish Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for using chemical weapons against his own people.
 
But does that mean Obama is dragging his country into Syria’s conflict? And how will he deal with the alleged danger posed by IS fighters?
 
Presenter: Adrian Finigan
 
Guests
 
Julien Barnes-Dacey- senior policy fellow in the middle east and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
 
Richard Murphy-  former US Ambassador to Syria and Saudi Arabia.
 
Andrew Tabler- Syrian affairs analyst and senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.