ISIS FIGHT NOT OVER: On the third anniversary of the start of U.S.-led anti-Islamic State operations, the U.S. military cautioned that the fight against ISIS is not over. The fall of Raqqa yesterday, and July’s fall of Mosul, have denied the Islamic State its self-proclaimed capitals in Syria and Iraq. But while the victories have broken the back of ISIS, the terrorist group has not yet been vanquished. An estimated 6,500 enemy combatants remain, mostly in the Middle Euphrates River Valley in Syria, which the U.S. military refers to as the MERV. “ISIS in Iraq and Syria are all but isolated in their quickly shrinking territory,” said Col. Ryan Dillon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, who added that even when ISIS is defeated militarily, the war will not be over. “We know that there still is going to be the ideology and the continued insurgent activity as they devolve into that,” Dillon said.
TAKING FULL CREDIT: The news that Raqqa has been liberated by U.S.-backed Kurdish and Arab fighters had President Trump crowing that he personally turned the tide of battle. “I totally changed the rules of engagement. I totally changed our military. I totally changed the attitudes of the military and they have done a fantastic job,” Trump told WMAL radio’s Chris Plante. Trump made the comments during a series of interviews yesterday with conservative talk show hosts. “We are fighting now to win as opposed to fighting to stay there. We were losing, now we are winning,” he said. “ISIS is now giving up, they are giving up, they are raising their hands, they are walking off. Nobody has ever seen that before.” When Plante asked the president why that didn’t happen earlier, Trump replied, “Because you didn’t have Trump as your president.”
