Graduated Escalation

A five-week campaign of US airstrikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq has forced them to conceal their movements and blunted their acquisition of territory, US officials said.

However, the reaction of the group’s fighters—moving and living in more stealthy ways—also makes them harder to target.

The group…is now less likely to operate openly, having fighters hide among local populations.

Another lesson this administration has chosen to disregard, this lesson from our Vietnam War.

President Barack Obama authorized only scattered potshots for “humanitarian” reasons. At the time, ISIS forces were exposed, moving in bunches, and vulnerable to serious destruction had there been a serious air campaign launched against them.

With his decision to not strike hard, Obama has given these terrorists time to adapt to the battlefield, and he has made their destruction much harder to achieve.

With his decision to give the terrorists time to adapt by hiding among civilians—as Obama knew that they would do, with the Vietnam War’s lesson of the Viet Cong before him—Obama also has made the destruction of these terrorists much more…expensive…to achieve.

And he still can’t recognized these as terrorists; he insists on legitimizing their behavior by calling them militants.

‘Twas a famous Commander in Chief.

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