THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

So that silver tongued devil John Kerry has finally gotten some sort of commitment from various Arab nations that we have armed to the teeth over the years to finally use some of that hardware.

Several Arab countries have offered to carry out airstrikes against militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, senior State Department officials said on Sunday.

The offer was disclosed by American officials traveling with Secretary of State John Kerry, who is approaching the end of a weeklong trip that was intended to mobilize international support for the campaign against the group, also known as ISIS.

“There have been offers both to Centcom and to the Iraqis of Arab countries taking more aggressive kinetic action,” said one of the officials, who used the acronym for the United States Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Middle East...

The State Department officials, who asked not to be identified under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters, did not say which Arab nations had offered to carry out airstrikes.

There are other ways Arab nations could participate in an air campaign against ISIS, without dropping bombs, include flying arms to Baghdad or Erbil in the Kurdistan region, conducting reconnaissance flights or providing logistical support and refueling.

The officials said the Arab offers were under discussion.

“I don’t want to leave you with the impression that these Arab members haven’t offered to do airstrikes, because several of them have,” the first State Department official said. “The Iraqis would have to be a major participant in that decision,” the official added. “It has to be well structured and organized.”

And it will be just like those joint maneuvers they have participated in over the years.