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America Can Succeed Militarily in the Mideast - ISIS' Defeat in Mosul Tells Us How
(Washington Post) David Ignatius - The collapse of the caliphate tells us that the U.S. can succeed militarily in the Middle East only if it works with local forces who are prepared to do the fighting and dying. The American campaign has been built around Special Operations forces, whose slogan has been that the battle must be waged "by, with and through" local partners. That has meant training, equipping and advising Iraqi and Syrian soldiers - then providing them with air support that has relentlessly pounded the enemy. The most brutally efficient part of the campaign has been the secret "capture or kill" strikes by the U.S. In simple terms, when the U.S. has actionable intelligence about a terrorist operative, it has tried to take that person off the battlefield. The marriage of local ground forces with U.S. drones, warplanes and intelligence has been potent.