Islamic State campaign has been very fast and smart.
They conquered 5 oil fields, some waterways, 5 of the most fertile wheat region of Iraq (and also stole the grain from the silos), performed the greatest bank robbery in the world (the Iraqi Reserve bank of Mosul had close to USD 500 million and a lot of American weaponry taken over in Iraq (and partly disappeared from Afghanistan) and also selling antiques on the black market.
And new American weaponry cannot be used without training (well there is a Snowden file leaked that points at the build up by CIA and Mossad of the Islamic State as a counterforce to distract the Arab State from Israel. It makes sense, but the truth is unknown).
The most important asset they have is the Mosul Dam. It is so important that, during the 2 Iraq War, the US Special Forces did a deep mission to secure it.
It practically works as a big hostage where Iraqi’s army or US has no winning choices.
– It is the largest dam in Iraq and can flood baghdad in few hours (estimated causalities 500,000!)
-It can cripple the entire regional agriculture and starve 400,000 farmers
-It cannot be bombed – it could be re taken by US Special Forces. But the dam could be damaged, you will have US casualties and it would be a massive operation.
-Due to the sand like soil, the dam is in need of constant (daily) repairs.
Definitely at this time they have the upper hand.
investorpolitico 