The U.S. Air Campaign Is Destroying The Islamic State

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer flies over northern Iraq after striking ISIS targets in Syria. Dvidshub/Flickr)

Daniel Gouré, RCD: The Air War That Is Defeating ISIS

The U.S. and its Coalition partners have been fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) for almost a decade. During much of this period, ISIS was but one of many Sunni terrorist groups operating in Iraq and, after 2011, in Syria. But beginning in 2014, ISIS swept out of Syria and into Iraq, capturing Mosul in June and almost reaching the gates of Baghdad.

The U.S. faced a potential national security catastrophe. Large portions of the Iraqi Army collapsed in the face of this onslaught. Having withdrawn most of their military forces from Iraq more than two years earlier, the U.S. and its Coalition partners were reluctant to recommit large land forces to its defense. Yet without immediate and powerful military assistance, the government in Baghdad could collapse. In addition, even if ISIS could be ejected from Iraq, there was still the problem of how to defeat the terrorist group’s Syrian stronghold.

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WNU Editor: Looking at what is left in the Western part of Mosul, Ramadi, Fallujah and now Raqqa .... the air campaign has been very successful in defeating ISIS .... as well as destroying everything else. My prediction .... the Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan are next.