ISIS on the offensive in Iraq

[Sarmatian]

Or, it could just possibly be based on the news item right there.

Possibly, but not certainly.

When no news reports say that they are on the back foot, chances are it is because they are not on the back foot.

There are plenty of news reports that do say that.

You have to understand one thing - reporters don't have a ****ing clue what they are talking about. 99% of the "reports" are actually statements from a military representative. That's why you have practically all western newspapers parroting -> Russian attacks don't target extremists, are wrong, counterproductive, doomed to fail and make Jesus cry; while Russian newspapers are all about -> Russian strikes are like, super effective, they kill only baddies and extremists will soon been defeated.

These seem pretty moderate..

They also seem like they need a brain transplant.

Of course, just because people join islamist groups doesn't mean that they are islamists. If the US can extract non-islamist elements from such groups, they'd have more people to provide arms to

That's not terribly hard since after 3 years of training and arming, more than a billion of dollars, US managed to get 4 (yes, four) people armed and ready to fight ISIS.

The sad thing is if they manage to get 5 in the next three years, that's a 25% increase in performance.