Trump administration wants to increase pressure on ISIL

NY Times:

Hitting ISIS Harder Said to Be Among Directives for Mattis


Plans for American artillery and attack helicopters in Syria may be included in a White House directive for Defense Secretary James N. Mattis.
Artillery units would also mean more ground troops to establish a force protection perimeter around the big guns.  Attack helicopters could be effective in blocking ISIL movement to contact and adding to surveillance of the enemy.

The quickest way to defeat ISIL and capture its caliphate would be to use combined arms operations involving infantry and mechanized units to go along with the air attacks.   That would require pulling the tanks and APC's out of mothballs in Kuwait and sending in the troops to operate them as well as the infantry units.  I am not sure Trump is ready to go that far.

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