Has any political figure come up with a strategy for governing those Sunni areas that are currently controlled by ISIS after ISIS forces are expelled from the urban centers of those Sunni areas? The experience of 2003-2006 indicates that it profits little to retake the cities in the Sunni areas of Iraq (and now Syria probably) without setting up a security architecture, connecting the residents to political institutions, etc. It is possible to imagine Shia-led Iraqi security forces rolling into Sunni cities, but I see no reason to expect that they will be able, even with American air and logistical support, to defeat the ISIS insurgency that would follow. It would only be a matter of time before ISIS rose again to go from insurgency to state.

It took tens of thousands of American troops applying counterinsurgency strategy for about a year to marginalize Al-Qaeda in Iraq. By all accounts, ISIS is at least as formidable as Al-Qaeda in Iraq at its peak. Absent a realistic plan to deny ISIS any enclaves within the Sunni areas of Syria and Iraq, the US doesn’t have a victory strategy. The US doesn’t even have a containment strategy. The Obama administration is just left conducting public relations by other means.