'And as I said yesterday, what we can't do is think that we're just going to play whack-a-mole and send US troops occupying various countries wherever these organizations pop up.
'We're going to have to have a more focused, more targeted strategy and we're going to have to partner and train local law enforcement and military to do their jobs as well.'
While the Bajji oil refinery battle has been fairly quiet today, it's probably because the Iraqi forces are trapped inside with no way out. Since ISIS controls the roads to the refinery, there is also no way in to save them. It's just a matter of waiting until their supplies are gone.
ISIS is not going to try and take the Moon and Mars. They want a unified caliphate state with no borders in Iraq and the area they call al Sham (Levant in the west) which is also known as Greater Syria. It extends to the Antakya region of Turkey, through Syria, Lebanon, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, and round to the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Some also include Cyprus.
How long can Malaki hold on? From Newsweek:
The fall of the key western city of Fallujah to ISIS in January should have been a loud alarm call. Instead of redoubling efforts to reach out to disaffected Sunni leaders, Maliki continued to pursue his own brand of Shia supremacism, monopolizing power and alienating Sunni and Kurd alike. This explains why Iraqi forces dissolved in the largely Sunni north as ISIS stormed into Mosul and south towards Baghdad. Maliki’s failure even to get parliament to declare a state of emergency after ISIS gains in northern Iraq speaks volumes for the contempt with which he is held in Iraq.
