Trump pledged in September that on his first day in office he would issue his generals with a simple instruction: “They will have 30 days to submit to the Oval Office a plan for soundly and quickly defeating ISIS.”
His premise is that the US-led coalition simply isn’t ruthless enough. In an interview with Fox News in September, Trump said: “We have to lead for a change because we are not knocking them. We’re hitting them every once in a while, we’re hitting them in certain places, we’re being very gentle about it.”
But promises made in the heat of a campaign are often tempered by reality later. The complexities of tackling ISIS in two countries amid an array of competing parties do not give themselves easily to campaign slogans.
The international coalition against ISIS announced today that it believes there are fewer than 1,000 ISIS jihadists remaining in Syria and Iraq. That represents one-third of the coalition’s estimate from just a few weeks ago.
Related: As 2017 is on the point of vanishing, it’s worth asking whether it’s time to take Trump seriously, if not literally, as a public policy maker.
Us Trump supporters told you all so.
Best president in at least 100 years.
Heh, one way to reduce the numbers of isis…
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-12-27/top-russian-general-accuses-us-training-isis-syrian-border-base
From ISIS To US-Backed “New Syrian Army” – “They Change Their Spots” Russia Alleges
According to a new Reuters report, the chief of the Russian General Staff has accused the United States of hosting a training facility for ISIS fighters in Syria along the Syria-Iraq border. Al-Tanf base on Syria’s southeast side has been under the control of the US-backed “New Syrian Army” and their US special forces advisers since the area was captured from ISIS in August of 2016.
Nobody seems to bother to mention President Trump’s greatest environmental triumph to date:
He has drastically reduced the solid waste generated by US public schools. Amazingly, since he took office, the students have actually been EATING their school lunches instead of dumping them in the trash!
Clearly so tuff and gud (even though ISIS was well into retreat before Turmp even came into office). Except for the deal that let a bunch of ISIS fighters escape from their stronghold.
“The BBC has uncovered details of a secret deal that let hundreds of IS fighters and their families escape from Raqqa, under the gaze of the US and British-led coalition and Kurdish-led forces who control the city.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/raqqas_dirty_secret
Oops sorry about your narrative their Kate. Looks like I ruined it. Again.
of course, the Ruskies don’t lie, or put context to their BS, now do they Mr Gay basher. The only one as stupid as you in this thread is the Unthing
You’ve ruined NOTHING you stupid plank –
“The deal to let IS fighters escape from Raqqa – de facto capital of their self-declared caliphate – had been arranged by local officials.”
Oops. You lose.
UnMe isn’t as clever as he thinks he is.
We’ve pushed ISIS into the Syrian/Russian controlled areas. There are some folks saying we should hit them there. I say, let Assad and Putin deal with them. If they move back into our sights, bombs away!
It’s all good, ISIS has miraculously doubled in size in Yemen…
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/pentagon-confirms-u-s-ground-operations-yemen-n831616
The Defense Department on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time “multiple ground operations” in Yemen, while noting that the Islamic State has doubled in size in the war-torn country…
Trump understands war and how to deal with savages, he does not tie his military down with “terms of engagement” unlike the previous imbecile president, his euro-weenie allies and sadly canaduh.
Ain’t that a fact LOL
If any ONE of the OTHER Republican Primary candidates had won the Primary and the Presidency … we would still be hitting Isis … gently … and … strategically … so as to maintain “the hearts and minds” of the Muslims … and doing NOTHING.
America desperately needed … and still NEEDS President Trump. A totally different cat than the same ol’ same ol’ bullshitty political illusions that are the excuses called our LEADERS.
Trump is the anti-politician politician … VIVE Donald J. Trump.
“The Defense Department on Wednesday acknowledged for the first time “multiple ground operations” in Yemen, while noting that the Islamic State has doubled in size in the war-torn country…”
This begs the questions, what is the Saudi army doing and why is it not able to handle a small backward country like Yemen in the throes of a civil war?
The Saudis may be the most inept military organization in the world. They and the other gulfies hired mercs for Yemen and they still haven’t made headway against the Houthis in YEARS. For some reason, the US is sort of allied with them against the Houthis, even though they are both enemies of AQ/ISIS/Salafis.
““The deal to let IS fighters escape from Raqqa – de facto capital of their self-declared caliphate – had been arranged by local officials.””
With not a word of opposition from the USG, specifically from Trump. Which is odd because he cannot STFU about anything else. His tertiary syphilis is oddly selective.
Trump understands war…
He Who Dances With Bones Spurs especially knows how to get out of it…:-)
I doubt there has ever been anyone as clever as UnMe thinks himself to be.
”With not a word of opposition from the USG, specifically from Trump”.
Yeahhhhh……about that…….
We didn’t want anyone to leave,” says Col Ryan Dillon, spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve, the Western coalition against IS. “But this goes to the heart of our strategy, ‘by, with and through’ local leaders on the ground. It comes down to Syrians – they are the ones fighting and dying, they get to make the decisions regarding operations,” he says. While a Western officer was present for the negotiations, they didn’t take an “active part” in the discussions.”
And what would you have Trump say? Trump should just run roughshod right over their operational decisions, contravening “the heart of our strategy?” I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you, you hypocrite you.
At first it baffled me why Kate tolerated your odious presence here. However, I suppose it has something to do with kicking stones over and letting the cockroaches come out into the sunlight where we can see them.
And PM Sock Monkey is under mining the effort to defeat ISIS by affording them an escape route.
If you’re a jihad on the run and you need to get out of the fray to a safe haven they need only surrender to the Canadians.
The “surrendering” Islamic jihad will be escorted from the battlefield away from coalition troops wishing to question them about their activities. From there they will be given free air transport to a safe house on Canadian soil where they can be integrated into Canadian society safe from that big meany Trump.
Sunni ways my friends.
“At first it baffled me why Kate tolerated your odious presence here. However, I suppose it has something to do with kicking stones over and letting the cockroaches come out into the sunlight where we can see them.”
Hmm… I suspect Kate lets UnMe post here for the same reason she lets you and even the gruesome NME666 post here.
It’s called “freedom of expression”. Perhaps you’ve heard of it?
I would have Trump bomb the hell out of the fleeing ISIS soldiers.
What’s MOST striking to me is that we have (Trump has) scuttled Isis with virtually no notice from the press, or any “visibility” whatsoever. I didn’t get a series of reports about drone strikes ordered by MY President. I didn’t get daily body counts from the evening news, I didn’t get weepy stories about “weddings being bombed”, nada, squat, nothing. Just Trump saying that he has “tasked” our military to “do their jobs” … “as they see fit”. Then … barely a year later BOOM! goes ISIS in Iraq. Gone. Swept clean. Totally pacified.
Well done, Mr President … well done.
LOL How remiss of me, I must have missed the part where being able to post on blogs is a constitutionally protected right. I suspect that if a decision was made to ban him, it would simply be done, and “freedom of expression” would (and could) have absolutley nothing to do with it. Like I said, I’d rather that we merely kick the stones over and let the sunlight do its work.
“I must have missed the part where being able to post on blogs is a constitutionally protected right.”
I didn’t suggest it was, I merely pointed out what should be a given to anyone interested in free discourse: UnMe is just as entitled to prattle away here as the rest of us.
My assumption is that Kate accepts that modus operandi too, otherwise a poster like NME666 would likely have been locked out ages ago based solely on his noxious anti-Semitism alone.
Buzzard and Tooner, there is a balloon out there with UnMe’s face on it and it’s typing up opinions.