Syria hysteria dooms Obama's plan to destroy IS

Secondly - IS is a State - meeting the legal requirements of Article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention:

The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:

(a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.

Obama's claim that IS is recognized by no other government is irrelevant – as article 3 of the Montevideo Convention makes indisputably clear:

The political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states.

Obama's false assumptions are a recipe for policy failure – as the goals enunciated by Obama in the same address clearly demonstrated:

Our objective is clear: we will degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIL through a comprehensive and sustained counter-terrorism strategy.

Destroying the UN condemned Al Nusrah Front did not rate a mention. A lukewarm response from 57 Islamic States to help defeat IS's declared world threat to peace was not factored into Obama's thinking.

Four days later an international conference held in Paris made it clear that Syria was not even part of the battleground where IS was to be confronted, degraded and destroyed.

Mouram Daoud – a member of the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change in Syria – an internal opposition coalition – opined that IS cannot be defeated militarily without Syria and Turkey's backing:

The US administration should first pressure the Turkish partner to stop the flow of jihadists through its airports and stop buying oil from IS. According to [United Nations] Resolution 2170, the US will not be able to strike IS sites in Syria without the approval of the Syrian government, which is eagerly awaiting this type of cooperation to restore its international legitimacy. But the US will not include the Syrian government in this war, and will not recognize the government either. This means that the US will stick to its decision to only provide weapons to the Syrian [rebel] factions.

Obama's mantra - first delivered in August 2011 - remains unchanged:

The future of Syria must be determined by its people, but President Bashar al-Assad is standing in their way. For the sake of the Syrian people, the time has come for President Assad to step aside.

Not even 200000 deaths and the creation of millions of Syrian civilian refugees since 2011 have produced any momentum for rapprochement between Obama and Assad that would enable Assad to extend - and Obama to accept - any invitation to confront ISIL in occupied Syria.

Any expectation that Assad and his backers – Russia, Iran and Hezbollah – will help Obama by destroying IS in Syria - is a pipe dream.

Syria hysteria seems destined to entrap Obama in yet another political quagmire.