Canadian CF-18 fighter jets haven’t yet started their attacks in Iraq. When they do, they will find a war against Islamic State militants that is going badly.

The 60-nation coalition cobbled together by U.S. President Barack Obama is far from united.

Some are willing to bomb militants in Iraq only, while others are willing to launch airstrikes in Syria as well.

Turkey, which borders Iraq and Syria, insists that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is the real enemy and wants the coalition to focus on deposing him.

Canada, by contrast, is willing to work with Assad, seeing him as the lesser of two evils.

The U.S. is bombing Islamic State militants on the Turkish-Syrian border in attempt to aid Kurdish fighters defending the town of Kobani.

Meanwhile, the Turkish military is bombing some Kurds inside Turkey and preventing others from travelling to Kobani to join the fight against the Islamic State.

Many countries, including Canada, the Netherlands, Britain and France volunteered for Obama’s air war.

But as the militants change their strategy, the warplanes of these nations are running out of targets.

When Britain tried to launch its first airstrike in late September, Reuters reports, its fighters had to return to base fully laden. They had been unable to find anyone to bomb.

The same fate struck Australia’s air force when it attempted to mount its first attack a few days later. No targets.

The militants, it seems, are returning to classic guerrilla tactics, such as hiding out in heavily populated towns.

Already, the 348 confirmed airstrikes to date in Iraq and Syria have killed some civilians.

Human Rights Watch says at least seven non-combatants were killed in one attack on Syria. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reports 13 civilians died in other strikes.

In a separate attack in Iraq, 18 more civilians died according to the local press.

Moderate rebels in Syria say, according to the BBC, that the bombing campaign threatens to turn more people there against the West.

In Iraq, according to Human Rights Watch, this is already happening thanks to the bombing of Sunni areas by the country’s Shiite-dominated government.

Meanwhile, U.S. attempts to forge a ground force capable of defeating Islamic State militants are bearing little fruit.

None of America’s coalition partners, including Canada, is willing to commit ground troops to Iraq or Syria. Neither is the U.S. itself.

The Iraqi army remains demoralized. This week, it lost another army base to Islamic State forces.

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The faction-ridden Syrian rebels don’t fit into tidy categories. Even so-called moderates are willing to work with groups that the West considers jihadist.

Militarily, the only effective fighting forces willing to take on Islamic State are the Kurdish militias. In Northern Iraq, Kurdish fighters successfully recaptured the strategic Mosul dam and lifted an Islamic State siege directed against the small Yazidi minority.

But the Kurds themselves are split. Some support the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is regarded as a terrorist organization by Canada, the U.S. and Turkey. Others adhere to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which controls the regional government in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Up to now, both factions have made common cause against Islamic State. That, in turn, worries Turkey, which has gone out of its way to woo the Iraq-based KDP but views the PKK with deep suspicion.

On Monday, Turkey bombed PKK fighters who had attacked a military outpost, breaking an 18-month ceasefire.

The last thing Turkey wants on its borders is a united Kurdish fighting force armed with the latest weapons. Yet if the Islamic State is to be defeated, such a force is necessary.

In short, this war is a mass of contradictions.

We have plenty of planes ready to bomb but little worth bombing.

We have virtually no capable ground troops on our side. Those that we do have operate according to their own rules and agendas.

Some of our friends are at daggers drawn. Others are playing footsie with the enemy.

Obama’s aim is to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the Islamic State. Yet so far, the militants are doing just fine.

This is the war that Canada’s roughly 670 fighter pilots, ground crews and special forces operatives will face when they arrive.