Editorial: How much longer?

ISIS was never defeated.  The press keeps insisting that ISIS is staging a comeback but it was never defeated.  Ali al-Sarraf (THE ARAB WEEKLY) observes:

Is there something more revealing of the nature of the Iraqi regime than the Islamic State?
Everybody is saying the Islamic State (ISIS) is “making a comeback.” ISIS had never left in the first place and it was not defeated. The mechanisms responsible for producing it have continued to spin without interruption.
Despite the collapse of ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate, no one dared say that a definitive victory was achieved over this organisation. There was no official announcement to that effect and the field commanders could still smell the presence of the enemy even though they did not see it or dared track it.
Wherever ISIS went, there was devastation. That’s hardly surprising and would not have changed anything coming from an organisation whose strategy is based on destruction.
Similarly, as long as there existed militias created and supported by Iran for the purpose of sustaining corruption and desolation, it was only natural that there would be militias that do not find it difficult or fearful to produce devastation everywhere.

The ISIS “production machine” has never ceased operating. All that the war on ISIS did was to destroy some of the “goods” that came out of the production line.


ISIS was not defeated.  All those bombings, all the destruction and it accomplished nothing.  Well, nothing worth praising.  Mosul was destroyed in the bombings.  And today?

Osama Bin Javaid (AL JAZEERA) reports:

Two years after ISIL was evicted from Mosul, the city still struggles with electricity, water, healthcare and other basic services and reintegrating close to half a million people has been a slow bureaucratic challenge with thousands having lost identification papers and other important documents during the war.
People in the city are saying that it will take a lot of effort to rebuild Mosul, and they will need international support, too.
With the totality of the destruction, many have tried to rebuild, given up and left, but still others are determined to stay.




The Iraq War, nearly 17 years later, has still not been won.  It never will be.  How many more lives and how much more money will be wasted to continue this never-ending war that accomplishes nothing?