Air Power/SOCOM mafias lose big in the perception war on ISIS...

via Politico

Obama has deployed thousands of U.S. forces to advise and train Iraqi troops and Syrian groups fighting ISIS, but he held firm that he would not send American soldiers to the front lines.
"It is not just my view but the view of my closest military and civilian advisers that that would be a mistake," the president said. "Not because our military could not march into Mosul or Raqqa or Ramadi and temporarily clear out ISIL, but because we would see a repetition of what we’ve seen before, which is if you do not have local populations that are committing to inclusive governance and who are pushing back against ideological extremes, that they resurface, unless we’re prepared to have a permanent occupation of these countries.”

What's going missing is the obvious.

Policy makers, in this case Congressmen, have all arrived at the same conclusion.  Special Operations raids and Air Power will not or rather has not put ISIS in its cage.

I find it amazing that no one has drilled down on this.  Its important because its part of the underpinning of the "new" American way of warfare.

SOCOM along with robust air power was suppose to be all we REALLY needed to win future wars.  Conventional forces would simply fall into a support role.  There would be trigger pullers, armor, and artillery...but the main focus was to be on Special Ops raids and a magnificent air force.

Reality is a bitch though.

Consider the territory we're talking about.  Open desert.  Consider the enemy.  Fully motorized with bits and pieces of a real deal mechanized force.  As a matter of fact that force has gotten so big that they're forming brigades!

This is the ideal locale for this new type of warfare to operate in and its failed.

Do you really want to know the real losers of the war on ISIS?  I'd say the people of France, President Obama and the think tanks that were pushing this Air Power/SOCOM way of war.