President Obama delivered on upbeat progress report Monday on the fight against Islamic State, and we can only hope that this time he’s right. A reason for skepticism is that Mr. Obama has offered similarly confident predictions of eventual victory before.
Speaking at the Pentagon, the President noted that Islamic State had been hit by more than 5,000 air strikes, “lost more than a quarter of the populated areas that it had seized in Iraq,” failed in key battles at Kobani, Mosul Dam and Tikrit, “alienated those under its rule” and united the world against it. He also promised an intensified air campaign against its leadership in Syria and its oil facilities in Iraq, along with an intensified effort to train and equip friendly local forces.