The Associated Press reported Lt. Gen. Sean MacFarland, the top U.S. commander for the fight against ISIS told Pentagon reporters in a video conference last week that: (1) The military campaigns in Iraq and Syria have taken 45,000 enemy combatants off the battlefield and reduced the total number of ISIS fighters to as few as 15,000. (2) That both the quality and number of ISIS fighters is declining, and he warned that it is difficult to determine accurate numbers. (3) that the enemy is in retreat on all fronts and that U.S. backed local forces in both Iraq and Syria have been gaining ground. The flow of foreign fighters into Iraq and Syria has decreased and that many people pressed into fighting for ISIS are unwilling or untrained.
MacFarland said that Iraqi forces are in a position to begin to retake the northern city of Mosul. But he added that the U.S. still has quite a bit of work to do at the Qayyarah Air Base in northern Iraq before it can be used as a hub for that battle. The General also said the military success in Iraq and Syria will not necessarily mean the end of ISIS.
In a Presidential election year where ISIS has been injected into the political dialog the news media as usual failed to give the General's report much coverage and of course those who disagree with the President's policy in the middle east were silent also. A piece of good news in an election year is always over looked by negative minds.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
