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Col. Harry G. Summers Jr. begins his book, On Strategy: The Vietnam War in Context, by relaying the following conversation: “‘You know you never defeated us on the battlefield,’ said the American colonel. The North Vietnamese colonel pondered this remark a moment. ‘That may be so,’ he replied, ‘but it is also irrelevant.’” As much as we may not want to admit it, in this sense, our current war against al Qaeda and their ilk resembles that of Vietnam. In fighting our post- 9/11 wars, we have won nearly every battle but are far from winning the war. How can this be? The answer lies largely in the civil military nexus that underpins how America wages war.

The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) is seeking to reverse the momentum in northern Iraq and maintain its aggressive posture in the western parts of the country.

The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga are establishing a security zone around Jalula in northeastern Diyala, northeastern Iraq.

Changes for November 24, 2014 Update: On November 23, Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF), and Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs) that include Iraqi Shi’a militias cleared the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham from the areas of Jalula and Sadia in Diyala province in northeastern Iraq.

The fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) continues to yield mixed results.

The provincial capital of Anbar Province, Ramadi, has been heavily contested by ISIS since the beginning of the Anbar operations and has been under the threat of falling to ISIS for nearly a year.

American strategy in Iraq and Syria continues to suffer from a fatal flaw.  President Obama explicitly ordered that it focus only on “degrading” and “destroying” the Islamic State to the exclusion of any other American national security interests and regardless of the likelihood of the long-term success of any such effort undertaken in isolation.  As a result, the strategy has achieved some limited successes against the Islamic State, but those isolated successes

On November 14, Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and the Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs) which include Iraqi Shi’a militias were able to achieve significant advances against the Islamic State of Iraq al-Sham (ISIS) in the strategic town of Baiji in Salah ad-Din province in northern Iraq. Baiji has been under the control of ISIS since June of this year and is also home to Iraq’s biggest oil refinery, the Baiji Refinery which has endured a five-month long ISIS siege.