#Mosul

It is crucial to plan beyond the short-term military strategy and work to create a new environment in which ISIS or its successor cannot re-emerge.

The new U.S. president will have to address the issue of religious minorities in the Middle East, from humanitarian and geostrategic perspectives.

An independent Kurdistan under U.S. protection would unite Iraqi and Syrian Kurdistan as well as minority areas of Assyrians, Turkomans, Yezidi and others.

Victory over the Islamic State in Mosul and Raqqa will bring about the demise of ISIS but fail to foster an end to the tensions and conflict in the region.

ISIS has abandoned its blitzkrieg-style land grab. Improvised explosive devices, suicide vests, and car bombs have once again become the order of the day.

Taking back Mosul would be a key victory for the Iraqi Army and coalition forces and a disastrous defeat for the Islamic State.

ISIS’s increased activity abroad is a sign of weakness rather than strength: the group has lost around 20% of its territory in Syria and over 40% in Iraq since its peak expansion in August 2014.

The ancient city of Palmyra has been the stage for mass executions, the destruction of cultural heritage, battles between ISIS and Syrian government forces, and now in an absurd turn of events, a concert put on by Russia’s Mariinsky Theater Orchestra.

Lacking outside alliances and with the geopolitical situation slowly starting to tilt against it, Islamic State’s pretensions to act as a legitimate government seem to have its days numbered.