TIME

Beating ISIS—and saving Iraq

An Iraq military outpost south of Mosul near Makhmour, where Iraqi forces have a training and operations base

ISIS’S CROWN JEWEL in Iraq for more than two years is all but guaranteed to fall soon to a major military offensive led by Iraqi security forces and bolstered by U.S. advisers and airpower. Retaking Mosul, a city of 1 million that has been a keystone to ISIS’s claims as a caliphate, isn’t going to be the problem for the new U.S. President. It’s the morning after the Iraqi flag begins flying anew over Iraq’s second largest city that’s the real challenge. The U.S. has never lacked the firepower to win the war. But it doesn’t seem to have the strategy, or the willpower, to win the

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from TIME

TIME6 min read
The Fog Of War
When the author Viet Thanh Nguyen was growing up in California as a refugee from the Vietnam War, depictions of that conflict were omnipresent in American culture. Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, and many other films portrayed American he
TIME4 min read
Nemonte Nenquimo
Someone recently asked me why it was important to protect the Amazon rainforest from oil drilling. The question made me angry. Can you imagine being questioned about the importance of protecting your home from being destroyed in a fire? Or about prot
TIME1 min readCrime & Violence
A Gang Crisis In Haiti
A police officer guards the National Penitentiary in Port-au-Prince on March 14, 12 days after gang members stormed the country’s two largest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates. Gangs were implicated in the 2021 assassination of the last elec

Related Books & Audiobooks