NEW YORK, September 9 (RIA Novosti) – An escalation of US airstrikes against Islamic State (ISIS) targets could result in civilian deaths and a public relations fiasco for the White House, Oklahoma University professor Joshua Landis told RIA Novosti Tuesday.
“Once America starts bombing places like Raqqa, not just ISIS artillery positions in the desert, there will be You Tube videos circulating of children being maimed and mothers grieving and this is going to be extremely damaging to the United States,” said Landis.
“The US will look like Syrian president Bashar al-Assad barrel-bombing civilians in Aleppo. There will be no difference, ultimately, if they kill civilians like this. Because the US doesn’t have a plan to bring justice to the region and it doesn’t want to get involved in nation-building,” he said.
The Islamic State – which is also known as ISIS and ISIL – has declared a caliphate across an area of Iraq and Syria that is home to as many as 8 million people. On Wednesday, US president Barack Obama is set to unveil his plan for defeating the Islamists.
