Bombing IS: Statistics Show War Far From Over
President Obama was determined not to get into a war in Syria and Iraq - but the statistics show what is really happening.
Tuesday 9 August 2016 21:29, UK
When the US-led coalition started bombing Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria, we were told by senior generals, politicians and whoever else had a stake in the PR-sell, that it would be a 'generational struggle' that would last 'many years'.
Well, two years on, that prediction has certainly proved accurate. The campaign has had its successes but is far from run.
Syria is a mess. You'd be hard pushed to extract any encouraging developments there in the past 24 months.
The campaign statistics are staggering.
More than 14,000 strikes have been launched at a cost of $8.4bn (£6.4bn) to the United States and $365m (£280m) to the UK. Some 26,000 targets have been destroyed or damaged.
Rather than lessening, the campaign has stepped up in its second year.
Not only have there been 2,336 more airstrikes, there have also been twice as many civilian deaths: 1,080 according to figures from a London-based monitor called Airwars.
For balance, the Pentagon assesses that only 55 civilians have been killed by US aircraft, and the UK Ministry of Defence says British strikes have not resulted in any innocent deaths.
Some 3.2 million Iraqis have been displaced. The number of Syrians is considerably greater. This mass exodus has changed borders, swelled towns, emptied cities.
"I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq," said President Barack Obama when he announced the first airstrikes in 2014.
In that, he failed.
Some 3,800 US soldiers are now in Iraq.
US, UK and French Special Forces are also operating there and in Syria.
A further 400 American troops will be sent to an airbase south of Mosul to help the push on that strategic city.
The figures I have listed above speak for themselves. Like it or not, the US and its allies are in a war. And it goes on.