Islamic State isn't so much winning the ground war in Iraq, it's winning the PR battle.
Yesterday I did a very unscientific straw poll in central London: I asked 17 random passers-by, some of them foreign tourists, who they thought had the upper hand - IS or the Iraqi Army. They voted, unanimously, in favour of the former.
So what does that tell us?
Let me frame the answer to that around a recent event of significance.
I’ve written previously how the fall of Ramadi was a defeat for the entire coalition, not just Baghdad.
Video: Iraqi City Of Ramadi 'Falls To' IS
But we shouldn’t overstate its significance.
It was a blow for the coalition - even a downright embarrassment, principally because a few thousand Iraqi soldiers fled in the face of only 150 or so IS fighters.
This was textbook guerrilla warfare. Convincing the enemy that you are bigger, more powerful and fearsome than you really are.
There's nothing new in that. The Gideon Force did it so brilliantly in Abyssinia during World War Two; so too the Chindits in Burma and Viet Cong in Vietnam.
Islamic State are the latest exponents.
Read more:
http://news.sky.com/story/1492129/fight-the-fear-how-is-is-winning-the-pr-warNothing I haven't been saying all along, but it's nice to have someone else confirm it!
