Apparently so it seems. Interesting that in comparison; Bush's "Shock and Awe" campaign consisted of around 800 airstrikes a day to an average of just 15 airstrikes a day in Obama's degrade-and-destroy mission. Barry started to withdraw troops in the region way too early for the sake of winning another election and as he was warned we are paying a very, very high price.
Is ISIS Winning?It has been nine months since President Barack Obama set forth a policy—“degrade and destroyâ€â€”for dealing with the Islamic State (ISIS), the radical group that emerged as the successor to Al-Qaeda in Iraq. In that time, despite daily airstrikes, an increased tempo of training Iraqi troops and a wobbly coalition of 60 nations trying to combat ISIS, the group has made steady gains in both Iraq and Syria: It not only still controls the city of Mosul, on May 17, it routed Iraqi troops in the Sunni stronghold of Ramadi, about 70 miles from Baghdad. In Syria it took the strategic city of Palmyra. It has extended its reach into Libya and conducted its first terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, blowing up a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Qatif. Far from being degraded, the group Obama once infamously derided as “the jayvee†appears in the eyes of many, to be on the march. If the question is, ‘Is ISIS winning?’ the answer, for now, appears undeniable: Yes....
...If ISIS is winning, it is because of a “series of mistakes made by its opponents,†says Lina Khatib, director of the Carnegie Middle East Center. “I describe ISIS as water that seeps into the cracks—the cracks of policy and strategy of the international community.’’
Start in Syria: One of the underrated aspects of ISIS’s allure has been, simply, its wealth. Whether through oil sales or extortion, ISIS is not only able to pay fighters more than a moderate opposition group like the Free Syrian Army (FSA) can, it has set up social welfare services—just as Hamas has long done—that provide a war-weary population with “monetary gains and social services,†says Khatib. For example in Raqqa, the so-called capital of the Islamic State, ISIS now provides medical services. The international community’s response, she believes, has been inadequate. It has focused—belatedly—on training and arming the moderate opposition, and it has done little to counter ISIS’s economic strength....
...That plan is now in tatters. “The fall of Ramadi is a disaster,†says Jiyad. The United States, he says, “failed to airdrop in supplies, they failed to hit [ISIS] hard enough from the air. The American involvement was weak.â€...
...For Washington, despite the obvious downside of an intensified air campaign—civilian casualties—that is probably the only realistic option. There has been an average of just 15 airstrikes a day in the degrade-and-destroy mission—compared with around 800 during the “shock and awe†campaign that kicked off the 2003 invasion. The 3,000 U.S. troops the U.S. has deployed to Iraq are stuck behind the wire, analysts say. Even Canadian special forces have more room to maneuver than their American counterparts, sources say. The rules of engagement need to be loosened, and U.S. forces need to be more involved in calling in airstrikes, as well as working more closely with Iraqi special operators—who are respected and well trained—to go after key ISIS members in the country....
http://www.newsweek.com/2015/06/12/isis-winning-338027.html
