Reports are that Abu-Bakr is dead, unless that has now been refuted like several times before. If he's dead, there is now no top leadership that we know about-- this is not like Zawahri and Osama-- and there is likely a factional dispute going on within ISIS. Somebody's got to maintain authority so that the fighters get paid. If the rats don't get paid, they've got to look for ropes to leave the sinking ship.
The way it SHOULD go is the US and Russia agreeing to destroy the logistical capabilities of ISIS, wherever they are operating. This would be militarily pretty simple. America's regime-change strategy in Syria is the major stumbling block.
In light of the serious escalation represented by the shooting down of the Syrian SA-22 and Russian response, it is crucial to the American people's survival-- indeed, everybody's including the Russian people's-- that we remember the bellicose rhetoric of the Republican candidates in their 2016 primary. Even the most moderate of the bunch, Ohio Governor John Kasich, declared that it was "time to punch Russia in the nose."
Rhetoric like that-- and actions carried on from that attitude-- is a far greater existential threat to the planet and human race than any "brutal dictator"-- meaning Assad, though we back and are backed by plenty of brutal men with various forms of government, including dictatorship-- could ever be.
If there is to be peace on earth, good will to men, it is on us, We the People, E Pluribus Unum, to lead the world away from confrontation, not into it. The geopolitical power game of backing Sunnis against Shiites because we're scared of Iran must end, and the neo-conservative people heading that wrong-headed-- and, I must say, cowardly-- strategy must somehow be rousted from power.
Such policies weaken, not strengthen, the national security of the United States.
(Article changed on June 19, 2017 at 18:44)
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