With all the craziness and the misinformation at this time in the middle of an election cycle lots has been said and most of it is misinformation in an attempt to garner votes.
The war with ISIS is going good, at least according to the Pentagon…but my thought is if it is going so good why do we need more troops thrown into the fray.
The war is going well for the Syrian army they seem to be on the move against ISIS and in Iraq the forward progress is not so good. But there have been some good ground made up by US led Iraqi troops and I recently read a piece in AJE that ISIS may be on their “back foot” in Iraq……
Sulaimania – The military campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) is entering a crucial phase, Iraqi and Western analysts say.
According to a recent study, in the past three months the group has lost 8 percent of its territory in Syria and Iraq.
The past six months have seen the reclaiming of some significant and symbolic territories from ISIL in both Syria and Iraq. With Coalition Forces stating that 20 percent of ISIL-held territory in Syria and 40 percent in Iraq were regained in 2015.
Source: Is ISIL on the back foot in Iraq? – AJE News
The problem is that some are saying that it is from the assistance of Russia that this progress is happening…..Global Research has issued a paper……
They Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the National Defense Forces (NDF) are continuing operations in the province of Latakia. On Mar.20, the Syrian forces repelled al-Nusra attempts to capture the village of al-Soucha. Since the partly departure of Russian forces from Syria, al Nusra militants have been attempting to restore their control on Jabal al-Qal’ah. However, all their attempts have failed. Meanwhile, Syrian troops took control of the Points 287, 397 and 409 in the province’s northern part and killed militants infiltrated al-Sawda village.
The SAA units repelled ISIS attacks on the villages of Kafr Saghir and Babins in Northern Aleppo. According to reports, some 50 militants were killed. Separately, the Syrian Air Force targeted ISIS’ positions in Deir Hafir and Maskana in the eastern part of Aleppo.
In Palmyra, the Syrian forces supported by Russian warplanes and helicopters took control of two hills overlooking the Ithriya-Palmyra road and set a fire control on it. The Ithriya-Palmyra road had been the ISIS main supply route between Eastern Hama and Palmyra. The road had been also used by ISIS for transporting oil from the town of Al-Sukhanah to the province of Al-Raqqa.
If all this “good news” is truly and accurate the next logical question would be……can ISIS survive for much longer?
If IS continues to lose territory at the same pace, some people believe the year 2016 could well be its last. But experts are maintaining a cautious optimism in agreeing with this prediction, which is frequently voiced by Iraqi decision-makers.
Jacob Zen of the Jamestown Foundation, which closely follows IS activities in the Middle East and Eurasia, says IS might make it to the end of 2016, but most likely only as a shadow of its current self.
Source: Will the Islamic State survive 2016? – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
Optimism is a great thing but a delusion can be dangerous.
I will agree with all my reading and researching that ISIS does seem to be taken aback a bit….but they have endured many years of pounding from the air and from several different forces. The season for operations is quickly approaching and I think that this will be the telling tale of ISIS.
All we can do is hope for success.
I’ll forgo a comment on this one, as I see the entire ISIL/ISIS scenario as a small, if drastically violent part of the whole picture, in which these issues are merely symbols of a larger, more entrenched problem. to wit; human nature, which is completely out of control. These conflicts, with the names of the participants changed to reflect the point on the globe they encompass, will continue as long as there is a profit to be made by it; the profit is all for the elite, and none for the people. Eventually, it will all matter not at all, for we don’t seem to be able to stop ourselves from being insane….
gigoid, the dubious