5,000 U.S. AIRSTRIKES IN IRAQ AND SYRIA, BUT ISIS STILL CONTROLS MOSUL

The U.S. has spent $7 billion since 2014 on airstrikes against ISIS which is waging an ideological war

U.S. and coalition forces have carried out 5,000 airstrikes against ISIS. The airstrikes, which began in August 2014, have cost American taxpayers $7 billion so far.

While ISIS has given up much of the territory it seized in Iraq, it still controls the important oil city of Mosul which it captured in June 2014.

Attempts to dislodge the Islamic State’s armed forces from Mosul by Kurdish fighters and the Iraqi army with their American advisers and supported by awesome U.S. airpower have failed thus far.

There is no doubt that we have destroyed most of the tanks and armored vehicles which ISIS seized from the Iraqi army. And we have killed thousands of ISIS fighters. Yet, still they hold onto Mosul and territories in Iraq and Syria.

The tenacity of ISIS can be explained by the fact that we are fighting a war like no other war we’ve fought before. This is an ideological war!

We are not fighting against the Nazis or the Japanese Imperial Army. We are not fighting against the North Koreans and the People’s Army of China. And we are not fighting against the Viet Cong and North Vietnam.

We are fighting against an anti-Western ideology which pits us against Islamic fundamentalists. The Iraqi army is fighting to regain its territory. ISIS soldiers are fighting for what they believe in. That makes greatly outnumbered ISIS fighters superior to the much better equipped Iraqi army. And that makes ISIS hang on despite withering airstrikes by the U.S.

It looks as though we will be spending another $7 billion and much more in an effort to win this ideological war.