Editorial: The Mosul Slog

"No!"

That's what CNN's 'objective' correspondent Elise Labott yelled in a State Department press briefing.

Remember that?

October 26th.



QUESTION: Okay. Can we stay on [the Islamic State] and the battle of Mosul?

MR KIRBY: Sure, sure.

QUESTION: Okay. Is it turning out to be like a slog, or how are things moving? How are they progressing?

ELISE LABOTT: No.

MR KIRBY: Elise, do you want to come take the podium?

ELISE LABOTT: Not today.



It was a slog.

It is a slog.

104 days.

104 day ago the operation to liberate or 'liberate' Mosul from the terrorist group the Islamic State began.

And still it continues.

And two weeks ago, the fact that eastern Mosul was liberated -- after all this time -- was presented as a great thing.

Then last week, it was presented as a good thing again because, it turns out, two weeks ago eastern Mosul hadn't been liberated.

104 days and the city is still not liberated.

But then, let's remember that the Islamic State took control of the city in June of 2014.

Yet the Iraqi government didn't even try to rescue the people until October of 2016.

Some response.

Some government.

But then the Iraqi government has never been about the Iraqi people.

It's been a bunch of exiles put in charge to do the bidding of the US government.