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The United States has blocked attempts by its Middle East allies to fly heavy weapons directly to the Kurds fighting Islamic State jihadists in Iraq, The Telegraph has learnt.

Some of America’s closest allies say President Barack Obama and other Western leaders, including David Cameron, are failing to show strategic leadership over the world’s gravest security crisis for decades.

They now say they are willing to “go it alone” in supplying heavy weapons to the Kurds, even if means defying the Iraqi authorities and their American backers, who demand all weapons be channelled through Baghdad.

High level officials from Gulf and other states have told this newspaper that all attempts to persuade Mr Obama of the need to arm the Kurds directly as part of more vigorous plans to take on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) have failed. The Senate voted down one attempt by supporters of the Kurdish cause last month.

The officials say they are looking at new ways to take the fight to Isil without seeking US approval.

via US blocks attempts by Arab allies to fly heavy weapons directly to Kurds to fight Islamic State – Telegraph.

I’ll be damned if I can discern a US strategy for the fight against ISIS that goes beyond “be seen to be doing something, but don’t make any bold moves.”

Each event, taken in isolation, can somewhat be spun in a manner that makes sense. I can, for instance, think of reasons why the US would want to avoid directly arming the Peshmerga.

The problem is, looking at all US actions, there’s no thread that ties them all together. When looking at a campaign from the outside, a reasonable person should be able to discern the gist of a campaign’s strategy. For instance, you and I can look at Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and make a pretty good guess at what they’re doing, and why. But I sure can’t tell what our plan is in Iraq and Syria.