Paris attacks may prompt Obama to step up military action

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Paris terrorist attacks seem likely to compel President Barack Obama to consider military escalation against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. But that probably will not mean dramatic moves like launching a U.S. or international ground offensive or accelerating aerial bombing in hopes of eliminating the global threat of violent extremism.

"You aren't going to bomb ISIS back to the Stone Age," Anthony Cordesman, a longtime Middle East analyst, said Saturday.

Cordesman and other American defense analysts said Obama may deepen U.S. involvement incrementally by, for example, embedding U.S. military advisers closer to the front lines of battle with Iraqi forces and with anti-IS fighters in Syria. But that and similar moves to intensify U.S. support for local forces is unlikely to produce quick results.

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