The Patriot Post® · A Year of Bombings Fail to Quash the Islamic State

The airstrike campaign known as Operation Inherent Resolve against the Islamic State militant group has cost American taxpayers $3.21 billion dollars through July 15, 2015, according to the latest Defense Department figures. And what do we have to show for it? Very little, Barack Obama’s defense officials are now forced to concede. Via the Associated Press: “U.S. intelligence agencies see the overall situation as a strategic stalemate: The Islamic State remains a well-funded extremist army able to replenish its ranks with foreign jihadis as quickly as the U.S. can eliminate them. … ‘We’ve seen no meaningful degradation in their numbers,’ a defense official said, citing intelligence estimates that put the group’s total strength at between 20,000 and 30,000, the same estimate as last August, when the airstrikes began.” Counterterrorism analyst Harleen Gambhir adds, “[L]ooking at the overall picture, ISIS is mostly in the same place.” While announcing the airstrikes last August, Obama said, “I know that many of you are rightly concerned about any American military action in Iraq, even limited strikes like these. I understand that. … As Commander-in-Chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq.” Nearly a year later, the results — and consequences — of Obama’s dogmatic foreign policy speak for themselves.