From what I have read, there never were that many IS goons. They rely on terror to cower the population. Once a credible force opposes them, they prove to be cowardly bullies.
10,000-15,000 ISIS members in Iraq estimated.
As usual. What is really going to happen here is a replay of what American troops went through to clean out the insurgency. It’s a pity more lives now have to be spent doing it. Too bad the Iraqi central government can’t get their act together instead of fighting over their births on the Titanic.
The Kurds need to be supported all the way on this. They should be treated as a separate entity by our state department for normalized relations , trade and military support as an ally. We have some history with them here.