President Donald Trump has made the war on terror a priority of his administration, and there are a ton of positive signs that tremendous progress has been made.
The commander-in-chief has taken the handcuffs off of our nation’s military leaders and allowed them to do what they do best.
As a result, ISIS has been forced into retreat mode, and its forces are dwindling to boot.
However, the Pentagon is not prepared to make any nonsense ‘mission accomplished’ statements just yet, as there remains much work to be done.
Washington Examiner shares the news.
While congratulating Iraqi forces for making “considerable progress” against “a determined enemy,” the Pentagon on Monday stopped short of endorsing the weekend declaration from Iraq’s leader that final victory over the Islamic State has been achieved in his country.
“The Iraqi security forces, under the strong wartime leadership of Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi have made enormous progress in the fight against ISIS,” Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, told reporters at a press briefing. “We congratulate all those who fought, and remember all those who died.”
Iraqi forces definitely deserve a tip of the cap, as do our own forces for helping to execute the game plan to perfection.
That said, the champagne needs to be kept on ice.
The Pentagon estimates that roughly 3,000 ISIS fighters are left, mostly in neighboring Syria, but with close to 1,000 still in Iraq.
Even as Abadi was declaring the war was over, Iraqi security forces were meeting “heavy ISIS resistance” in a clearing operation in Hawija that resulted in 13 ISIS members being killed. Iraq police SWAT teams were raiding 13 ISIS hideouts near Mosul, capturing 21 fighters, Manning said.
“There is still work to be done,” Manning said. “ISIS remains a threat, and they need to do these back-clearing operations to make sure ISIS does not get a chance to re-establish a stronghold.”
Manning’s words amount to a big old reality check. While it would be great to assume that the tremendous progress that has been made means that the threat from ISIS is a thing of the past, reality suggests that would be a horrible call.
ISIS is not going to go away just yet, and that’s an uncomfortable thought to process. However, we can all take solace in the fact that we finally have the leadership in place to see the job through once and for all.
To say that’s a refreshing change would be an understatement of epic proportions.
Source: Washington Examiner
