--- title: Obama Authorizes U.S. Strikes to Help Iraq Reclaim Mosul Dam From ISIS description: But limiting strikes for political reasons may prove untenable canonical: https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-18T12:33:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:53.016Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama Authorizes U.S. Strikes to Help Iraq Reclaim Mosul Dam From ISIS og:description: But limiting strikes for political reasons may prove untenable og:url: https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7ad8c162f3ac7b8/69869fe0e53aba2e854d4095/453742336.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2994 og:image:height: 1684 og:image:alt: IRAQ-UNREST-KURDS-DAM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama Authorizes U.S. Strikes to Help Iraq Reclaim Mosul Dam From ISIS twitter:description: But limiting strikes for political reasons may prove untenable twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7ad8c162f3ac7b8/69869fe0e53aba2e854d4095/453742336.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dam Yankees: U.S. Steps Up Bombing in Northern Iraq > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Peshmerga Retakes Mosul Dam [Watch (HLS stream): Peshmerga Retakes Mosul Dam](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3Hm0TQ8N.m3u8) (0:42)  _Published 2014-08-17. Peshmerga Retakes Mosul Dam_ by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Aug 18, 2014 12:33 PM UTC  Smokes rises from U.S. air strikes near Mosul dam on Sunday. Smokes rises from U.S. air strikes near Mosul dam on Sunday. Ahmad Al-Ruhbye—AFP/Getty Images by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Aug 18, 2014 12:33 PM UTC The Obama Administration made clear last week that its ban against U.S. “boots on the ground” inside Iraq only pertained to combat boots. Sunday, it [went back](http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/08/17/letter-president-war-powers-resolution-regarding-iraq) to its dictionary and stretched the definition of “humanitarian” to include offensive bombing strikes against Islamist militants in northern Iraq. That’s because ever since the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) seized the Mosul dam, it has had the power to release the reservoir behind it, turning the Tigris River downstream into Class V rapids with a 60-foot wall of water. “The failure of the Mosul Dam could threaten the lives of large numbers of civilians, endanger U.S. personnel and facilities, including the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, and prevent the Iraqi government from providing critical services to the Iraqi populace,” President Barack Obama said in a letter to congressional leaders. The U.S. military launched 23 airstrikes on ISIS targets over the weekend, including 14 on Sunday. A fleet of fighter-bombers, bombers and drones took out nearly 20 ISIS vehicles—mostly U.S.-built armor and Humvees that ISIS captured from retreating Iraqi forces—on Sunday alone. An Iraq military spokesman said Monday that Iraqi special forces and Kurdish fighters had regained control of the dam, although that claim has not been confirmed. “These operations are limited in their nature, duration, and scope,” Obama said, “and are being undertaken in coordination with and at the request of the government of Iraq.” The weekend air strikes nearly doubled the number the U.S. has launched in Iraq since they began Aug. 8, and marked the most coordinated military effort between U.S. and Iraqi forces since the U.S. military left the country in 2011. Pentagon fingers are crossed that the combination of U.S. air strikes and Iraqi ground operations will be sufficient to defeat ISIS. Defense officials, and the White House, are acutely aware that the American public has no appetite for deeper involvement—military or otherwise—in Iraq. The operation makes military sense, but justifying it using the original two-prong test—Obama said Aug. 7 that the U.S. would attack targets in Iraq only “to protect our American personnel, and… to help save thousands of Iraqi civilians who are trapped on a mountain without food and water and facing almost certain death”—may prove too convenient. “This policy of not dealing with it as an ecosystem I think is wrong,” Michigan Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told CBS on Sunday. “They have a long-term plan about where they’re going that would establish their caliphate from Beirut through Syria through Iraq.” ISIS wants to create that caliphate from which it would seek to attack the U.S. and other targets in the west. Every time the Administration expands its military footprint in Iraq to deal with the threat—and justifies it on humanitarian grounds, or to protect U.S. personnel—it restrains its freedom to act the next time if stronger military action is required. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/"},"headline":"Dam Yankees: U.S. Steps Up Bombing in Northern Iraq","datePublished":"2014-08-18T12:33:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:00:53.016Z","description":"But limiting strikes for political reasons may prove untenable","url":"https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/","keywords":["Military","Iraq","Terrorism","National Security"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7ad8c162f3ac7b8/69869fe0e53aba2e854d4095/453742336.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mark Thompson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf7ad8c162f3ac7b8/69869fe0e53aba2e854d4095/453742336.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"IRAQ-UNREST-KURDS-DAM","caption":"IRAQ-UNREST-KURDS-DAM","creditText":"Ahmad Al-Ruhbye—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/military/","name":"Military"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/","name":"Dam Yankees: U.S. Steps Up Bombing in Northern Iraq"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Peshmerga Retakes Mosul Dam","description":"Peshmerga Retakes Mosul Dam","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3Hm0TQ8N/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-08-17T19:40:04.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3Hm0TQ8N.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/","duration":"PT42S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3135744/mosul-dam-iraq-us-bombing/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```