![Center of Raqqa [Image via Bertramz wikimedia commons]](https://staticr1.blastingcdn.com/media/photogallery/2017/10/17/660x290/b_502x220x82/center-of-raqqa-image-courtesy-of-bertramz-wikimedia-commons_1637581.jpg "Center of Raqqa [Image via Bertramz wikimedia commons]")
As Hot Air notes, the Syrian city of Raqqa has fallen to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Arab and Kurdish fighters, backed by the United States. As of this writing, the stadium complex, used by ISIS as a torture center and prison, is being cleared of mines and any die-hard Islamic State fighters who remain. A number of ISIS terrorists managed to escape, but much more were either killed or captured in the fighting. The vaunted Islamic State as a distinct territorial entity has come to an end.
What the fall of Raqqa means
The collapse of Raqqa has ended the Islamic State, though sadly it has not ended ISIS.
The terrorist army is still scattered across the Middle East and parts of North Africa, ensconced in placed like Libya, Yemen, and even Afghanistan. ISIS will trouble the peace of the world for quite some time before its members are hunted down and either killed or captured.
However, the fall of Raqqa and the victories achieved by American backed forces in Iraq have torn the heart out of ISIS, demonstrating that the Islamic State, the renewed caliphate that was going to spread a particularly noxious brand of Islam across the world, was a charade. The ISIS fighters who are left have to be demoralized and angry, one reason why so many of them have laid down arms and have thrown themselves to the mercy of their enemies.
The end of ISIS?
ISIS, besides having created its own version of Mordor in Syria and Iraq, has managed to pull off a number of spectacular high casualty attacks in Europe and North America, using at times local militants who had been inspired by the Islamic State’s success. With the so-called caliphate on the ash heap of history and its members being hunted down, the appeal of dying for the cause of ISIS has been dramatically diminished.
Donald Trump’s victory
It is no coincidence that the collapse of the Islamic State took place so soon after the change of administrations, President Obama had a hands-off, limited war, restricted strategy where it came to dealing with ISIS, which he once sneeringly referred to as the “JV team.” Trump, heeding the advice of such men as General Mattis, changed the strategy to one aimed at winning.
It may seem strange that some people do not recognize that wars are waged to be won, in which one side is victorious, and the other humbled into the dust. However, Trump was able to instantly grasp that was the way to go, and the results are now playing themselves out in the Middle East.
