Great Kid, Don't Get Cocky

Displaced Iraqis from Ramadi cross the Bzebiz bridge after spending the night walking towards Baghdad, as they flee their hometown, 65 km west of Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 16, 2015. Islamic State militants seized the center of Ramadi in western Iraq and raised their black flag over the government compound, local officials said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Shot:

Washington lawmakers from both parties on Sunday praised the U.S. raid that killed Abu Sayyaf, a key Islamic State leader in charge of the group’s oil and gas operations in eastern Syria.

“It’s good news,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Obviously, any time you can degrade or take away top leadership of an organization. It’s a positive step forward.”

Chaser:

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria militants, known for their obliteration and wanton destruction of historical sites, have seized parts of the ancient city of Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site in Syria, according to reports.

“If [the Islamic State] enters Palmyra, it will spell its destruction,” said Syria’s director of antiquities, Maamoun Abdulkarim, to Agence France-Presse before the news was announced. “If the ancient city falls, it will be an international catastrophe.”

And another chaser:

The key Iraqi city of Ramadi fell to ISIS on Sunday after government security forces pulled out of a military base on the west side of the city, the mayor and a high-ranking security official said.

The ISIS advances came after militants detonated a series of morning car bomb blasts, Mayor Dalaf al-Kubaisy and a high-ranking Iraqi security official said. The explosions forced Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters to retreat to the city’s east, they said.

It’s a wonderful thing, taking out ISIS leadership like our Special Forces did to Abu Sayyaf in that raid on Saturday. But at its heart, ISIS is a popular ideological movement — or at least just popular enough to keep its ranks and leadership slots filled. If we’re serious about defeating it, that means a much more sustained effort than pinprick air raids and the occasional commando raid. It also requires a sustained counter-ideological effort, rather than apologies and denials about the true nature of radical Islam.