Washington— The battle for Mosul is a chance for US President Barack Obama to claim an election-year victory over the Islamic State group in Iraq and offset failures in Syria. Ask the White House about the slow motion catastrophe in Syria and, more likely than not, officials will talk about the different — if related — problem of the Islamic State group. With the battle to retake Mosul kicking off Monday, the Obama administration now has something to talk about. US efforts to stop the Syrian-Russian bombing of civilians in Aleppo have come to nothing, another black mark against Obama’s vexed policies in the Middle East. Libya is in chaos, Egypt is still run by the military and Obama’s refusal to intervene in Syria’s war, which has already killed more than 300,000 people, will likely have repercussions for generations to come. But from Aleppo, head 600km east across the Syrian-Iraqi border and there is better news. After two years and about 5,634 strikes against the IS group, the jih...
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