Is U.S. Strategy And Policy 'On The Fly' In It's War Against The Islamic State?

Robert Beckhusen, War Is Boring: The U.S. Ignored Ramadi, Now It’s Bombing the Hell Out of It

Before, the Pentagon had focused on helping Iraq retake the Beiji oil refinery.

The American-led air campaign over Iraq has a pattern — and patterns change. What the Pentagon sees as the most important part of the battlefield is what it’ll bomb the most. As the lines shift, so do the air strikes.

What we’ve seen this month is a radical shift in the air campaign away from the oil refinery of Beiji — and the Kurdish ground war in northern Iraq to a lesser extent — to Ramadi.

Which makes sense. Iraqi forces defending Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, collapsed in the face of a massive Islamic State assault on May 17. The militant group took the city in a lightning assault after a months-long siege, and has carried out summary executions. Around 55,000 civilians have fled.

WNU Editor: I call this a "whack-a-mole" strategy. Hit one place .... the enemy shows up elsewhere. Hit there, and the enemy shows up at another place.

Hat Tip to reader Jay for this link.