Hyping recent territorial gains against ISIS, Maj. Gen. Rupert Jones credited the huge number of people killed in the US-led coalition airstrikes, saying they are killing people more quickly than ISIS can replace them, and that this would inevitably lead to victory.
Of course, the US had been arguing as much for years, and putting forward gaudy figures of estimated killed to support them. At the same time, there’s never been a really good estimate of what the size of ISIS forces are at any given time, which has meant the number of people killed and the number of people left never seems to be connected.
Maj. Gen. Jones went on to say the fall of Mosul and Raqqa would be “the beginning of the end” for ISIS, and talked of the “inevitability of their destruction,” again crediting the huge numbers killed as putting ISIS in an unsustainable situation.
The comments underscore the underlying simplicity of the coalition’s anti-ISIS strategy, which appears to just be large body counts as a recipe for victory. Whether that ultimately works remains to be seen, but ISIS has been getting killed in huge numbers since before they were called ISIS, and territory losses aside, they have showed an incredible ability to adapt.
LOL!! I can only shake my head at this comment. Until the flow of terrorists from Saudi Arabia and turkey is put to an end, this will continue on for years.
Body counts and “attrition” as strategy failed in WW1, failed in Vietnam, and will always fail. There are ALWAYS more where those came from, even more motivated by the mass murder.
“Decisive action” has always required maneuver and holding gains. Gen. McMaster has discussed that at length as the fundamental failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, as it was in Vietnam.
Yeah… Attrition Warfare — more proof this Global War on Terror is a repeat of Vietnam