The US air war in Iraq is not leading to any tangible results in slowing ISIS’ ability to carry out attacks, according to analysts from IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center (JTIC).
Analysts there, including JTIC head Matthew Herman, say that ISIS has showed they are still “calling the shots” in Iraq, and that the number of attacks they are carrying out on a monthly basis seems entirely unaffected by the US war.
If anything, the number of attacks has picked up significantly since June, and Jane’s conceded that their own database is likely calculating only a fraction of the overall ISIS campaign.
The ISIS war has been so unsuccessful in Syria that the Obama Administration has been holding a series of emergency meeting to rethink their strategy there. The signs are that the Iraq part of the war isn’t going any better, and that policy keeps getting shifted without any concrete idea of how to make the war work.
I think you got this all wrong.
For me it is quite obvious that ISIS is loosing.
You should look at the rate which ISIS is expanding and not at the number of attacks. The whole point with the attacks is to grab more territory and lately ISIS has been halted and has even lost some territory.
Probably ISIS is making more attacks as they are desperate but as they have lost a lot of heavy military equipment because of the airstrikes, they are loosing.
For example look at Kobane, they have not concurred this town even after attacking the Kurds for about eight weeks. But if they had been successful and concurred it, their attacks on Kobane would have naturally been stopped and your statistics would claim the opposite, that they are loosing.
So you miss, I am sorry to say, the whole point.
I meant losing and not loosing, sorry.
The most sensible solution, to bring Syria and Iran into the anti-ISIS coalition, can't be pursued because it doesn't suit the plans of Israel and KSA. They both want Assad out and Iran attacked, as long as US taxpayers pay for it, and US troops do the dying.
I think it is a quite good strategy to not to send any troops. The Iraqis, the Kurds does the fighting on the ground backed by US and coalition bombing. At least it is worth trying.
It took seven month of NATO bombing until Qaddafi regime collapsed. So we need some patience here.
If this does not work, then, I think, the US will send troops as Obama has said that the US will not accept that ISIS takes over Iraq and Syria.
But this will not happen until other options are closed.
> The Iraqis, the Kurds does the fighting on the ground backed by US and coalition bombing.
I think you missed the memo where the Turks are ferrying ISIS goons via Turkey to facilitate attacks on Kurdish positions.
Do not even attempt to see this as a simplistic "fight against ISIS" narrative. Too many differing interests are on the table.
> It took seven month of NATO bombing until Qaddafi regime collapsed.
That is not a "success story" to bring up. Better cover what liberal intervention of the Rice/Powers sort has wrought with the dark mantel of silence.
> The US will not accept that ISIS takes over Iraq and Syria
So what exactly are they gonna do about it? Limited options are now very much limited. Now it's only about mindless wheeling around. Like a crazed guy on a mall scooter, crushing fireants left and right.
"That is not a "success story" to bring up. Better cover what liberal intervention of the Rice/Powers sort has wrought with the dark mantel of silence"
Who said it was a success story? It was the military aspect I was writing about and not the political aspect.
"> The US will not accept that ISIS takes over Iraq and Syria
So what exactly are they gonna do about it? Limited options are now very much limited. Now it's only about mindless wheeling around. Like a crazed guy on a mall scooter, crushing fireants left and right."
I have already answered that.
If the options are limited no one should complain.
Martin Demsey american army general:
"Asked why Americans should expect the latest US intervention in Iraq to go better this time, Dempsey said: "We think we're taking a different approach."
"Instead of grabbing a hold of it, owning it and then gradually transitioning it back, we're telling them from the start, look, that is about you, this has to be your campaign plan," the general said at the conference organised by the Defence One website."
What has happened lately supports my statement.
" Now it's only about mindless wheeling around. Like a crazed guy on a mall scooter, crushing fireants left and right".
I think you have interpreted the bombing campaign all wrong. Targets are carefully and intelligently selected and the bombed.
It should be "and then bombed", sorry again.
I have since I heard of ISIS i June this year, suspected that ISIS is not that strong but rather that other parties in the region have been very weak.
ISIS has taken advantage of anarchy and instability in the region.