Oct. 30, 2016
Peter Bergen Wrote for CNN about the war against ISIS.
As US-backed Iraqi forces move closer to wresting control of Mosul from ISIS, plans are already underway for striking the heart of the terrorist group's would-be "caliphate," the Syrian city of Raqqa.
Both cities are the major objectives in a new and largely untested kind of American military strategy to defeat ISIS' terrorist army in the Middle East. Rather than commit substantial land forces, the United States is providing Special Forces, intelligence resources and substantial air power to Iraqi and Syrian fighters on the ground.
The last time the United States used this approach in a substantial manner was a decade and half ago in Afghanistan, where a similar combination of US Special Forces working with their Afghan allies on the ground combined with large-scale American airpower led to the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the months after 9/11.