Thread: Trump, Mattis turn military loose on ISIS, leaving terror caliphate in tatters

Trump, Mattis turn military loose on ISIS, leaving terror caliphate in tatters
By Hollie McKay
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/12...n-tatters.html

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....

From the article...

...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.”...



...“We really had one mandate and that was enable the Iraqi Security Forces to defeat ISIS militarily here in Anbar. I feel that we have achieved that mission,” Folsom said. “I never felt constrained. In a lot of ways, I felt quite liberated because we had a clear mandate and there was no questioning that.”

Brig. Gen. Robert “G-Man” Sofge, the top U.S. Marine in Iraq, told Fox News his commanders have “enjoyed not having to deal with too many distractions and there was no question about what the mission here in Iraq was.”...



...In addition to air support, the U.S.-led strategy also includes training and equipping Iraqi troops on the ground.

While the Trump administration’s success is often underplayed in the U.S. media, it is obvious on the ground in Iraq, according to a spokesman for Iraq’s Ministry of Defense, Yahya Rasool.

“I was not optimistic when Trump first came to the office,” Rasool said. “But after a while I started to see a new approach, the way the U.S. was dealing with arming and training. I saw how the coalition forces were all moving faster to help the Iraq side more than before. There seemed to be a lot of support, under Obama we did not get this.”...

Originally Posted by fuego

Not a peep on CNN's site about it that I can tell.

They were probably just a little too busy dealing with this...

CNN Botches "Bombshell" Report "Proving" Collusion Between Trump Jr And Wikileaks
by Tyler Durden
Dec 8, 2017 5:43 PM
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-1...jr-and-wikilea

Cable news networks just can't seem to get their facts straight when it comes to publishing purportedly damning reports about the Trump campaign's efforts to "collude" with the Russians.

Last week, ABC News suspended reporter Brian Ross after Ross reported that Mike Flynn had agreed to testify that Trump ordered him to reach out to the Russian government during the campaign – something that, if true, would've validated the mainstream media's collusion narrative and potentially placed the president in serious legal jeopardy.

Shortly after publishing its initial report, ABC was forced to issue a crucial correction: Flynn actually planned to testify that Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner ordered him to reach out to representatives of the Russian government during the transition. This changed the whole context from something that would've been overtly illegal to something much more mundane. The correction was issued – but not before the Dow shed 350 points.

Today, it was CNN's turn to bungle a "bombshell" concerning the Trump campaign and Wikileaks....