RAF claims to have killed 4K terrorists in Syria...Air Power Advocates are lining up to say they won that war...

Why put boots on the ground when you can neutralise enemies from the air? The RAF has killed some 4,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria. https://t.co/kGE7AboHS0

— Nicholas Drummond (@nicholadrummond) March 7, 2019

And here we go again.  Air Power Advocates are in the cheap seats chirping about winning the war in Syria.  

I find the argument not only old but infuriating.  

The facts of this fight should piss us all off...this is my personal tick tock of things...

1.  ISIS never numbered more than at MOST 150K fighters according to the most GENEROUS open source materials.

2.  ISIS was allowed to rampage across Iraq and Syria in open columns of vehicles without apparent opposition although they could have EASILY been killed at the their birth.

3.  Western leadership (to include Washington, the UK, France, and others) watched the events unfold and did not react in a timely manner.

4.  There was no real unified effort against the terrorist threat.  At times we couldn't tell whether the real target was ISIS or Assad.  This campaign in actuality looked like a regime change op instead of trying to stomp out a regional terrorist threat.

5.  While the air war chugged on ISIS was allowed to dream of a "caliphate", spread their propaganda to the US and Europe (so effectively that they were able to convince fools on both continents to join) and caused the disease to spread to the rest of the Middle East/Africa.

Chest thumping is hardly called for.  If anything we should wonder why such a small force took so long to defeat.

It gets worse though.

Air Power Advocates will claim victory and Land Power realists are already on their back foot to the threat.

It's always about money.

This argument isn't about combat efficiency.  Its about budget share.  Leadership in the West still wants painless, cheap wars.  Air Power Advocates are once again promising that, even though we all know better.