Under Trump, ISIS Has Been All But Snuffed Out – Mainstream Media Has No Answer

By
Lawrence Richard
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OPINION | Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those held by Sarah Palin.

President Donald Trump is being credited with the near destruction of ISIS, the terror organization which grew to its height under former President Barack Obama.

According to reports, the group has lost nearly 98 percent of the land mass it controlled at its peak and is just under 1,000 fighters, from nearly 35,000 – 45,000 fighters under Obama’s administration.

Per Fox News:

ISIS has lost 98 percent of the territory it once held — with half of that terror group’s so-called “caliphate” having been recaptured since President Trump took office less than a year ago, U.S. military officials said Tuesday.

The massive gains come after years of “onerous” rules, when critics say the Obama administration “micromanaged” the war and shunned a more intensive air strategy that could have ended the conflict much sooner.

Here’s more:

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“The rules of engagement under the Obama administration were onerous. I mean what are we doing having individual target determination being conducted in the White House, which in some cases adds weeks and weeks,” said retired Air Force Lt. Gen. David Deptula, the former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence. “The limitations that were put on actually resulted in greater civilian casualties.”

And:

“This was a top priority from the early days of ISIS gaining the type of territorial safe haven in particular, there was recognition that safe havens for terrorist groups can mean terrorist plots that extend — not just into the region — but to Europe and conceivably into the United States,” said Joshua Geltzer, author of “US Counter-Terrorism Strategy and al-Qaeda: Signalling and the Terrorist World-View,” now a visiting professor at Georgetown Law School.

With bureaucracy put aside, Trump let the U.S. armed forces do what they do best:

The latest American intelligence assessment says fewer than 1,000 ISIS fighters now remain in Iraq and Syria, down from a peak of nearly 45,000 just two years ago. U.S. officials credit nearly 30,000 U.S.-led coalition airstrikes and regional partners on the ground for killing more than 70,000 jihadists. Meanwhile, only a few thousand have returned home.

The retired Air Force Lt. Gen. said that ISIS could have been eliminated in a matter of three months, if the military was not “micromanaged” by Obama.

He added, “We could have accomplished our objectives through the use of overwhelming air power in three months not in three years.”

According to the report, Obama refused to allow the U.S. military to attack the monetary supply of ISIS; “giving the terror group $800 million in much needed revenue to plot attacks and enslave millions of innocents.”

Washington Examiner reports the staggering difference between the two adminstrations:

On Jan. 20 — the day Trump was inaugurated — an estimated 35,000 ISIS fighters held approximately 17,500 square miles of territory in both Iraq and Syria.

As of Dec. 21, the U.S. military estimates the remaining 1,000 or so fighters occupy roughly 1,900 squares miles of mostly barren desert primarily in Syria, where few people live, and where they will be forced to surrender or die.

And:

Between September 2014 when the counter-ISIS campaign began, and January 2017, U.S.-backed forces in Iraq and Syria liberated 13,200 square miles of territory and 2.4 million people from Islamic State rule.

In the 11 months since Trump took office, an additional 26,800 square miles have been reclaimed and 5.3 million people have been liberated.

They also provide this graphic, showing the territorial losses before and after Trump took office:

They report both administrations served to effectively destroy the terrorist group:

And while the destruction of the ISIS caliphate was a validation of the Obama strategy of working “by, with, and through” partner forces, U.S. commanders gave Trump and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis credit for ending what was largely perceived as micromanagement and overly restrictive rules of engagement under Obama.

Here’s why:

“We don’t get second-guessed a lot. Our judgment here on the battlefield in the forward areas is trusted. And we don’t get 20 questions with every action that happens on the battlefield and every action that we take,” said Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend when he turned over command of the coalition in September.

“Commanders now don’t, aren’t constantly calling back to higher headquarters asking for permission,” he said. “They’re free to act.”

Check this out: