How the War Against ISIS Was Won

The Wall Street Journal

How the War Against ISIS Was Won

Fighting ‘by, with and through’ local allies may be the U.S. military strategy of the future. In Mosul, it survived its toughest test.

By Michael R. Gordon

In mid-April 2017, I was a fly on the wall for a top-level meeting that helped cement the defeat of Islamic State. Nearly three years earlier, Islamic State militants had taken the city of Mosul, rocking the Middle East and spurring the U.S. to send its military forces back to Iraq.

The American mission this time wasn’t to do the fighting on the ground but to back up Iraqi forces with U.S. firepower and advise them as they battled their way forward. The name of the military campaign was “Operation Inherent Resolve,” and in the spring of 2017, that resolve was being put to the test.

Full story https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-war-against-isis-was-won-11654271174