“We got credit for the war and defeating ISIS and so many things, the great economy, the biggest tax cuts ever, the biggest regulation cuts Ever the creation of Space Force, the rebuilding of our military. We did so much,” Trump said.
We’ll get to the tax cuts in a second. Here we’ll focus on the claim about ISIS. Trump rightly gets credit for shrinking the territory ISIS controlled. But it’s wrong to say ISIS was or is defeated.
According to data from IHS Markit, a private defense and security research firm, the area controlled by the Islamic State went from 90,800 square kilometers in January 2015 to 6,759 square kilometers in January 2018. That’s a 93 percent reduction in territory.
But the success Trump claims was built upon strategy and attacks that were launched under President Barack Obama.
The campaign to defeat ISIS took shape in September 2014 under the name of Operation Inherent Resolve. According to U.S. Air Force Central Command data, coalition forces engaged the enemy over 33,000 times between the launch of the operation and November 2017. (The Air Force includes strikes taking place in August 2014.) Counting only sorties in which at least one weapon was released, about three-fourths of the action took place during the Obama years. The Air Force reports over 104,000 missiles, bombs and other explosives dropped in the course of the campaign. About two-thirds of that came before Trump took office.
Though ISIS no longer holds territory, it continues to operate and has worked to expand its global presence through affiliates in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, according to the Congressional Research Service.
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Publish date : 2024-07-18 22:56:00
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