Washington's Air War Against Islamic Militants Costly and Ineffective

The success rate of the US-led coalition's military operation against the Islamic State group is "poor and comes at great expense", according to the Strategist, an official blog of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

Surprisingly, Washington paid little attention to the first anniversary of the beginning of the US-led coalition's bombing campaign against the Islamic State, a military operation that the White House is paying a high price for, Claude Rakisits, a Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, said in his article published by the Strategist, an official blog of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.

It is hard to believe, but by August 31, 2015 the US Treasury spent more than three billion dollars on the air war against ISIL, or about 9.4 million dollars per day, according to Rakisits. 

He said that since the start of the bombing campaign, the coalition has dropped almost 20,000 bombs and missiles on ISIL positions, eliminating about 15,000 Islamic State militants.

"That success rate is poor and has come at great expense. And it would appear that ISIS is able to replace its losses with new foreign recruits quite easily," Rakisits pointed out.

According to him, the lack of public interest in this war is even more surprising given that all the high-ranking military leaders have acknowledged that the war will be protracted.

"This is a war that the next two administrations will likely have to deal with," Rakisits said.

However, he added, no one wants to talk about a long war or a war with unrealistic goals, such as the "ultimate destruction of ISIS."

Also, Rakisits specifically pointed to the fact that politicians in Washington cannot even agree on whether the air campaign against ISIL is a "war", an "armed conflict", "hostilities", or "counter-terrorism."

The only thing the US politicians have managed to agree on is that the war against the Islamic State is a "political minefield," Rakitis said, adding that this is something that explains American legislators' unwillingness to discuss the issue in the Senate.

This is why it is now irrelevant to speak of any significant progress in the war against ISIL, Rakisits concluded.