ISIS Wave of Might Is Turning Into Ripple

[underpants]

Source: NY Times

Today, roughly a third of Iraq is dotted by active battle fronts, with intense fighting and occasional Islamic State victories. But analysts also say the days of easy and rapid gains for the jihadists may be coming to a close in Iraq, as the group’s momentum appears to be stalling.

The international airstrike campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, has clearly played a role in slowing the Sunni Muslim group’s advance. But analysts say other factors are having a major effect, including unfavorable sectarian and political demographics, pushback from overrun communities, damage to the group’s financial base in Syria and slight improvements by ground forces in Iraq.

“The airstrikes from the coalition have been very helpful, and now the ISIS fighters are confused and don’t know where to go,” said Maj. Gen. Hamad Namis al-Jibouri, the police chief of Salahuddin Province in Iraq, where a combination of government security forces and Shiite militias have been fighting the jihadists near the town of Baiji. “They have also raised the spirits of the groups on the ground that are fighting ISIS.”

Hisham Alhashimi, an Iraqi researcher and an expert on the Islamic State, said those changes had broken up the group’s territory, making it harder for it to move its forces and for its couriers to relay messages among the leadership and the field commanders.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/world/middleeast/isis-wave-of-might-is-turning-into-ripple.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

[belzabubba333]

1. or maybe their funding is drying up now that our elections are over

[Frustratedlady]

5. Bingo!

Along with encouragement from some Sunday Nooz loudmouths and one guy, in particular, who has been mighty quiet.

Same with ebola

[ballyhoo]

7. You got it!

[mountain grammy]

14. Ya think, just maybe...

way too convenient, this is!

[The Wielding Truth]

24. No. The President has handled it well as he always does and it's IS-IL.

[belzabubba333]

28. oh thank you sooooo much for correcting my ISIS faux pas that correction makes things so much

more clearer, otherwise nobody would know what im talking about well excpt for you. you somehow managed to super-sleuth the meaning. good for you ! of course with everyone using isis (excpt for you) i cant see why you chose to correct only mine but oh well.....

[The Wielding Truth]

41. The Commander in Chief uses IS-IL. How is it that the media doesn't respect his usage? I do.

[Maedhros]

29. Warmongering nonsense.

Off to the ignore list.

[belzabubba333]

39. hey there are even more posts posted today using isis instead of is-il- better go get em

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025780018

[belzabubba333]

40. uh-oh here's another one for you to correct

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016106173

[Enrique]

2. great news, but a bummer for the hawks

maybe if they pray hard enough ISIS will rebound?

[blm]

3. NYT wouldn't report this in the weeks BEFORE the election.

And broadcast media had no interest in it, either. Even though it was apparent to those paying attention, that Obama, Kerry and Hagel's strategy on Iraq and building a coalition of allies and fighters that included Iran, has been......EFFECTIVE.

[underpants]

4. Indeed

[SkyDaddy7]

6. The media's FEARBOLA CAMPAIGN 2014

Is the reason the polls swung so hard in the republicans favor the last few months prior to the election...Everyone freaked out for no reason, even folks here on DU fell victim to the media's "reporting" that President Obama was losing control overseas "ISIS" & here at home "Ebola".

It really made me sick watching it all take place...You can bet your ass as the Ebola scare wanes & ISIS ability is deteriorated the media will NOT credit the Obama administration they will simply move on to something else FAKE to criticize Obama for.

I don't want to bring race into this but WTF else is going on that the media refuses to credit Obama with any of the vast positive changes this country has seen in the past 5yrs? This country was coming apart in 2008 & now most everything is moving in right direction yet the media acts like it is still 2008???????

[blm]

12. Racist corporate media wants people to blame Obama for Bush's mess.

They have stripped all good journalists of any power or platform.

[LeftInTX]

20. Makes me mad that the media reported on everyone who was being evaluated fo Ebola

Then yesterday the AP changed their policy.

It does nobody any good except family and friends to know when someone is being evaluated for Ebola. It created panic in the Bronx when a kid became sick with something else.

Gosh every time someone from West Africa vomited it made national news!!

[flamingdem]

26. Good point

So damn true.

[bullwinkle428]

8. ISIS won't even be a blip on the radar by the time the next Congress

is seated in January. That sure worked out very nicely for Boner, McConnell and company!

[blm]

10. GOP will claim credit - just like they did for the economic turnaround in the 90s.

Even though every one of them voted AGAINST the legislation and policies that led to the nation's surplus budget by the time Bush sat his lousy carcass in the Oval Office.

[christx30]

9. Plus I'm sure they have lost

a lot of personnel that have come here to jump over the U.S./Mexican border with their prayer rugs and korans, trying to spread Ebola.

[KinMd]

11. Does this mean that ISIS won't be invading the US anyday now? WHEW...what a relief

[ballyhoo]

13. What has invaded the US is far more dangerous than ISIS...

[Rozlee]

27. Don't be so sure. There's always 2016.

[mountain grammy]

15. Wow, good thing Republicans took the Senate

so we're all safer now. I have Cory Gardner to protect me from all the terrors on earth....

[underpants]

22. They must fear Lindsey Graham

[mountain grammy]

23. Yes, that's it, I'm sure!

[FSogol]

31. Who doesn't?

[underpants]

32. Well .... You are probably just a'shakin' at the knees ...

And I do declare (fans himself) who have just GOT to be feelin' the heat. That's right, I have come to this here very spot for two a reasons. To chew gum and to kick some a that there butt...and to my hORRible surprise it appears that I am fresh out of gum.

They didn't even have any more down at the Piggly Wiggly

[cosmicone]

16. Kill all the remaining ISIS fighters and their sympathizers n/t

[MelissaB]

17. And they are targeting teachers (that includes my brother).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025774315

[Dopers_Greed]

18. The media will credit ISIS's defeat to Republicans taking the Senate

[candelista]

19. This is called "whistling in the graveyard."

You do it to make yourself feel better.

Notice their source: Maj. Gen. Hamad Namis al-Jibouri, the police chief of Salahuddin Province in Iraq.

Impeccable, no?

[LeftInTX]

21. They'll be back in October 2016

[Comrade Grumpy]

25. C'mon, people, everything isn't about the mid-terms.

[Odin2005]

30. Gee, right after the election, who'd have thunk it???

The Kurds will wipe the floor with these ISIS bozos with some air support from us. The fear-mongering was purely for domestic consumption.

[Central Scruitinizer]

33. The fact is a jihadi army is a lousy fighting force.

ISIS rolled like Patton wherever their pickups took them. As soon as they met terrain or a fight, their rolling pickups became a losing tactic.
Airstrikes even stopped that one go-to move.
Jihad is not so much about victory as much as sacrifice. We come here to die is the cry of jihad. Rudderless groups like ISIS will not get very far.

[jtuck004]

34. Then why are we still at war? n/t

[underpants]

36. The take open space and friendly Sunni areas

They execute people for recruitment purposes.

They do have 1,000-2,000 Chechneyens ( who are bad dudes) but other than that they don't stand up to the Kurds

[jtuck004]

38. And for this they have so much trouble we are having to send missiles, drones, advisors,

and get help from other nations to do the same.

And ISIS is walking the streets of Mosul, executing Kurds at will. Sounds like they might be standing up here and there.

Just fyi: The mujaheddin, long b4 ISIS learned to be vicious capitalists, fought the Russians to a draw, from horseback and in caves, with some help from US weapons. 'Course, then we turned our backs on them and a lot of other things went on. But this current crop is smart, capable, and funded.

But that's such a silly argument. We are fighting an idea. As long as people with limited vision think they can solve it with guns, this will continue.

However, most people who tell me anything about this don't really have a clue, have no real experience on the ground there or anywhere near and are just mouthing American propaganda, so I really don't engage in the limited conversations we might have.

Btw - WE execute people when they won't fight. Ask any veteran that has been in combat. We execute a LOT of civilians too, nowadays with bombs, because people started objecting to having to shoot all those civilians in Vietnam - the smoke gets in your eyes. The bombs kill 'em just as dead, though. There are whole websites dedicated to the baby parts we tough people have left scattered all over those countries. With GREAT excuses.

So people riding by on their white horse mouthing-breathing the whole "we are tougher, we are holier than thou" lines leaves me worse than cold.

It is so much more complex than that, and that garbage does nothing but continue the division.

[Kingofalldems]

35. Who has been funding them?

[underpants]

37. The Saudi royals

They have been finding the weird cousin/ Pentacostal Muslims before they fell into oil money (think the Clampetts). The Wahabbists do have an extensive school system but they were seen as a deadend road until a country opened up for them to take. That was predicted in the anti-war movement courtesy of the CIA Worldbook.