America can succeed militarily in the Mideast. ISIS’s defeat in Mosul tells us how.

[rangerrebew]

America can succeed militarily in the Mideast. ISIS’s defeat in Mosul tells us how.
 
By David Ignatius Opinion writer July 11

What lessons can we take from the Islamic State’s defeat in Mosul and its coming eviction from Raqqa? The collapse of the caliphate tells us that the United States can succeed militarily in the Middle East if — and probably only if — it works with local forces who are prepared to do the fighting and dying.

Where the massive U.S. ground campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade and a half became expensive exercises in frustration, the war against the Islamic State has been far less costly in money and American lives — and also more successful. Amazingly, over the past three years, just five Americans have been killed in action in Syria and Iraq, according to the U.S. military.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/america-can-succeed-militarily-in-the-mideast-isiss-defeat-in-mosul-tells-us-how/2017/07/11/ed51d51a-6668-11e7-8eb5-cbccc2e7bfbf_story.html?utm_term=.9a41393f37c8