Eight nations have stepped up provide arms to the Kurdish peshmerga forces in Iraq, including Albania, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK.
But putting together a coalition for any potential military action in Syria is a bigger challenge, chiefly due to domestic political concerns.
“It’s why I have conversations with my European colleagues,” Dempsey said, “which I think is actually more threatened [by IS] in the near term than we are.”
That said, he added, the US must also play a “leadership role, to build coalitions, to provide the unique capabilities that we can provide – but not necessarily all of the capabilities – to work through this.”
In the meantime, the Pentagon has asked Congress for $500 million to move forward on “a train-and-equip program for a moderate Syrian opposition,” Kirby says. “We hope to get that authorized and appropriated for fiscal year ’15, which is coming up here pretty soon.”
