Mosul Falls: What Is Next for ISIS? - The New Yorker
Exactly three years after it was declared, the Islamic State is now near defeat. The Iraqi Army has liberated Mosul, the largest city under ISIS control, while a Syrian militia has penetrated the Old City section of Raqqa, the capital of the pseudo-caliphate. U.S. air strikes—at a cost of more than thirteen million dollars a day—plus Army advisers and teams of Special Forces were pivotal in both campaigns, launched late last fall. But it is far too soon to celebrate. Since the rise of jihadi extremism four decades ago, its most enduring trait, through ever-evolving manifestations, is its ability to reinvent and revive movements that appeared beaten.