Shifting ground for the Islamic State over the past few days:

1: US air support to Iraqi Government Forces and more importantly to the Kurdish Peshmerga Militia

2: US supplies of arms and ammunition to both Iraqi Government Forces and to the Kurdish Peshmerga Militia

3: Deployment of Special Advisors to Kurdish areas - As they did in Afghanistan operating with Northern Alliance forces in the period October to December 2001 they will identify, nominate and "paint" the IS targets to be hit from the air. In Afghanistan the combination of local ground forces, special advisors and air power ran the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda "guests" out of the country in seventy-one days (The Taliban had previously been unsuccessfully trying to defeat the Northern Alliance for seven years).

4: It would appear that the Iraqi Government is starting to get its act together re Nouri Al-Maliki. That will take time but it will be done and then they can proceed against IS "fighters" and any Sunni Tribes inside Iraq who support them.

Good article by Tim Collins in the Telegraph today:

Telegraph Tim Collins Article

"The sectarian dictatorship of Nouri Al Maliki, the now ousted prime minister of Iraq, has alienated the Sunnis once more. He systematically erased Sunnis from public life. He then purged the army of its US-trained officers and, in a festival of corruption, made himself minister of defence and interior, and assumed many other offices that allowed him to distribute favours to his cronies.

When IS turned from attacking the Assad regime in Syria to helping the tribes resist Maliki's regime, they found it an easy task. While the Syrian army is a professional force, the Iraqi army – superbly equipped by the US but led by Maliki's friends – crumbled. As the officers ran, so the soldiers followed."

The Islamic State will fail in Iraq exactly as "Al-Qaeda-in-Iraq" failed - WHY? Because they have nothing to offer anyone - exactly as Hamas have nothing to offer anyone in Gaza.