Fox:
BAGHDAD – Hundreds of ISIS fighters had just been chased out of a northern Syrian city and were fleeing through the desert in long convoys, presenting an easy target to U.S. A-10 “warthogs.”
But the orders to bomb the black-clad jihadists never came, and the terrorists melted into their caliphate — living to fight another day. The events came in August 2016, even as then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was vowing on the campaign trail to let generals in his administration crush the organization that, under President Obama, had grown from the “jayvee team” to the world’s most feared terrorist organization.
“I will…quickly and decisively bomb the hell out of ISIS,” Trump, who would name legendary Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense, promised. “We will not have to listen to the politicians who are losing the war on terrorism.”
Just over a year later, ISIS has been routed from Iraq and Syria with an ease and speed that’s surprised even the men and women who carried out the mission. Experts say it’s a prime example of a campaign promise kept. President Trump scrapped his predecessor’s rules of engagement, which critics say hamstrung the military, and let battlefield decisions be made by the generals in the theater, and not bureaucrats in Washington.
At its peak, ISIS held land in Iraq and Syria that equaled the size of West Virginia, ruled over as many as 8 million people, controlled oilfields and refineries, agriculture, smuggling routes and vast arsenals. It ran a brutal, oppressive government, even printing its own currency.
The terror organization now controls just 3 percent of Iraq and less than 5 percent of Syria. Its self-styled “caliph,” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is believed to be injured and holed up somewhere along the lawless border of Syria and Iraq.
ISIS remains a danger, as members who once ruled cities and villages like a quasi-government now live secretly among civilian populations in the region, in Europe and possibly in the U.S. These cells will likely present a terrorist threat for years. In addition, the terrorist organization is attempting to regroup in places such as the Philippines, Libya and the Sinai Peninsula.
But the military’s job — to take back the land ISIS claimed as its caliphate and liberate cities like Mosul, in Iraq, and Raqqa, in Syria, as well as countless smaller cities and villages, is largely done. And it has taken less than a year.
“The leadership team that is in place right now has certainly enabled us to succeed,” Brig. Gen. Andrew Croft, the ranking U.S. Air Force officer in Iraq, told Fox News. “I couldn’t ask for a better leadership team to work for, to enable the military to do what it does best.”
President Trump gave a free hand to Mattis, who in May stressed military commanders were no longer being slowed by Washington “decision cycles,” or by the White House micromanaging that existed President Obama. As a result of the new approach, the fall of ISIS in Iraq came even more swiftly than hardened U.S. military leaders expected.
“It moved more quickly than at least I had anticipated,” Croft said. “We and the Iraqi Security Forces were able to hunt down and target ISIS leadership, target their command and control.”
After the battle to liberate Mosul – ISIS’ Iraqi headquarters – was completed in July — the U.S.-led coalition retook Tel Afar in August, Hawija in early October and Rawa in Anbar province in November.
Marine Col. Seth Folsom, who oversaw fighting in Al Qaim near the Syrian border, agreed. He wasn’t expecting his part of the campaign against ISIS to get going until next spring and figured even then, it would then “take six months or more.”
Instead, ISIS was routed in Al Qaim in just a few days.
I’m sure that, like the economy, this is all the result of Obama’s miraculous policies finally bearing fruit. Thank you, Obama. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Nonononono look over there some guy is flirting, SQUIRREL! Why is she wearing heels to a hurricane, he is tweeting again, tax cuts will kill billions, Obamacare is to popular to kill, no wall, DACA children, ghost Russians voting, PECAN PIE ah ah ah anything but a YUGE victory for America and Russian troops no not that!
Bush filled Gitmo but never tried many of its prisoners.
Obama let tons of Gitmo detainees go, even allowing them US legal court standards if tried, meaning they walked due to lack of proper evidence collected in war time.
Trump has ignored Gitmo.
He follows the advice of his generals who must believe they don’t need prisoners at all.
Just point & shoot.
Trump’s military strategy is working, ISIS is being wiped out.
Now, it’s the Taliban that is getting entrenched in Afghanistan.
Boys are being educated in schools in Taliban-style Sharia, a very nasty, strict Sharia.
Afghanistan is becoming a haven for extremists, waiting to happen, again.
Sad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/time_continue=1&v=D8tFH5yIvsQ
Even “moderate” Muslims might need to be wiped out as this video shows.
Or, here: http://www.popularyoutube.com/video/D8tFH5yIvsQ/Moderate-Muslims
Meanwhile, the commander in Afghanistan recently stated that from 2011-2016 the enemy there thought we had lost our will to win. Another clear indicator of what a failure Obama was. But I’m sure all the left wing historians out there will rewrite history and rate him as a great success.
https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/us-general-afghanistan-2011-2016-enemy-believed-we-had-lost-our-will
Trump inherited Operation Inherent Resolve and Obama’s multi-nation military coalition at a point when the war against ISIS was already entering its final stages.
Trump’s loosening of Obama’s rules of engagement have more than doubled the number of civilian deaths in Iraq and Syria. His expanded bombing campaign in Afghanistan has increased civilian casualties by 50 percent. We don’t hear much reporting about that, of course.
@Greg:
If they hide among women children and old folks like the craven cowards they are then there will be civilian casulties How many more civilians were raped and killed by these animals because they were left alive by Obama?
Sound as if you like long drawnout and very expensive degradation over winning you sick SOB.
That’s not a new development. The Obama administration just chose to deal with it differently. He was willing to accept slower progress to reduce collateral damage, mindful of the fact that you don’t win people over to your way of thinking by indiscriminately killing their neighbors and families. That’s how ISIS operates.
@Greg: He chose to allow a Christian genocide, rmurder, beheading kids, sex slavery. Thats a fact by not quickly destroying the enemy he allowed a population of 1.3 million Christians to be decimated by 80 %, so he wouldnt harm the terrorists wives and kids, the next generation of inbred murderers.
No, Obama intervened against all of that as our nation’s Commander in Chief—in spite of the fact that Congress refused to act, or to even discuss action. His request for authorization to use military force is probably still in the bottom drawer of the Speaker of the House’s desk—assuming it wasn’t shredded to destroy evidence of their prolonged negligence.
I clearly recall them launching repeated attacks against Obama’s drone program, which was chiefly responsible for the destruction of al Qaeda and ISIS’s leadership structure. Too much collateral damage, they said. They berated the air war against ISIS, asserting it was ineffective and a waste of time. They ignored the shrinking area that remained under ISIS control, and discounted every stronghold that ISIS lost. Right up until the time that Donnie Boy was elected.
@Greg: Bull, who gave Trump what Obama used as an excuse for allowing genocide, when did they give it to Trump.
Christian girls were being burned to death in cages because they refuse to become jihad brides and YOU DIDNT CARE. The kids of terrorists were being trained how to behead by using christian infants and toddlers and your MSNBC refused to report on atrocities and genocide because Obama was CIC arming and training them calling them freedom fighters.
@Greg:
Planes returned from sorties fully loaded with their weapons, unable to drop them due to Obama’s restrictions. Now, we are fighting and the inevitable is happening: the enemy is losing. Trump is allowing the military to fight the war, not a political committee worrying about how it will poll.
Because we are fighting. There is a war. The time to worry about civilian casualties was before Obama pulled all US troops out for some cheap headlines and allowed ISIS to run roughshod over the region. No liberals worried about them then, or as they glossed over their growth and violence. They were the JV and Obama had them on the run. Lies.
Oh? So, how is Trump having so much more success without the same AUMF?
Trump isn’t “having so much more success.” ISIS was already contracting and staggering toward collapse after two long years of intense coalition efforts, which included heavy and continuous U.S. air and intelligence support—little or no news of which penetrated the right-wing propaganda bubble’s information filters. All they did was provide their audience with a steady stream of tales of horror and outrage, along with endless messages concerning how little Obama—a possible closet Muslim terrorist himself—was doing about it. So, you’re totally convinced that the blowhard in the White House actually had a secret plan, the amazing results of which we are now seeing.
I’ll largely thank President Obama for successfully taking on ISIS without the support of the republican Congress.
I’ll also thank Obama for keeping the use of U.S. ground forces to a minimum and for the low U.S. military body count that has resulted from that decision. After 2 years of Operation Inherent Resolve, the number of U.S. military personnel lost numbers around 50. That’s another positive outcome of careful, methodical action. Flag-draped caskets have never been my favorite thing. Impulsive behavior tends to result in more of them.
@Greg: Military death toll for Trump if this can be done quickly , will never reach those that Obama racked up dragging it out his entire 8 years. They are also torching the poppies a major source of cash for the jihadists. We wont have to take in thousands more of refugees.
@Greg:
Well, yeah, apparently he is. Instead of simply harassing the enemy with fly-overs, we are allowing our military to do what it does best: destroy the enemy.
No, you can thank George Bush for that. Iraq had been secured before Obama took office. Obama squandered that peace for some cheap headlines and we got ISIS.
While these wars will continue to be touted as the longest in US history, we will need an asterisk to indicate that the past 8 years were wasted, with Obama being more concerned with not doing political damage to his precious self than protecting national security and winning the wars.
@Bill… Deplorable Me: Not to mention he didn’t want to hurt the terrorists little feelings.
After they lose maybe a nice participation trophy would be in order.
@Bill… Deplorable Me, #14:
Thanks. I needed a handy example of what has resulted from the right-wing propaganda bubble’s information filters mentioned up in #12.
The truth? There were 24,287 bombs dropped by U.S. forces in Syria and Iraq in 2016 alone. That was a bit of an increase over 2015. But let’s not let reality get in the way of the right’s favorite propaganda memes.
I see the DoD’s Operation Inherent Resolve website has now relegated all operation history preceding the month of The Donald’s coronation to the archives. We now have a 54-page list of News Stories that commences with January 2017. I wonder whose idea that was?
@Greg: Major difference is that Mattis and Trump were killing the enemy. Killed them until they were gone. That’s how a war is won; NOT by creating MORE enemy.
@Greg: #16 Do you mean Obama took bleach bit to that because of his yoga schedule?