Juan Cole: Top 5 Ways Daesh/ ISIL is Losing, as it lashes out like a Cornered Rat

[pampango]

Daesh is what ISIL is called in the Middle East by the vast majority that doesn’t like it. It has not had a good month, suffering substantial setbacks in Iraq and watching with concern as the Damascus regime of Bashar al-Assad looks set to retake the major northern city of Aleppo, to the immediate west of Daesh’s territory in al-Raqqa Province. As its leadership panics, it turns to brutal images such as another beheading as a way of trying to calm down its terrified allies. Here are some of the setbacks:

1. On November 7, the leader of Daesh, Ibrahim al-Samarra’i, was wounded by a US airstrike on his convoy near Mosul. While he is not irreplaceable, as I argued at the time, his ignominious wounding surely lowered morale in the organization.

2. The Iraqi military is maintaining that it cleared Daesh elements from the oil refining city of Beiji, north of Baghdad. Since the organization makes some money by smuggling refined oil products, this loss hurts them in their bottom line.

3. The Iraqi military and its Shiite militia allies, along with some Sunni tribes, say that they have retaken from Daesh a key dam in the eastern province of Diyala:

http://www.juancole.com/2014/11/losing-lashes-cornered.html

Sounds like that tide may be turning against ISIL or Daesh as Muslims call it. As Cole points out, this reversal may make them even more dangerous, as they "lash out like a cornered rat".

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Isn't it amazing how the so called

Corporate Media in Amurica zings Cole and tries their damnest to discredit him to no end. Knowing full well this fellow has the day to day pulse of what is really happening in the Mid East. Yep! More important to tell us of some propaganda piece put out by AIPAC and other NSA-CIA mouth pieces. But,then again,lets hear more of the contrived shit about Obama care or all the fake stories on how our President is failing to govern. Yah,that's the ticket.