Iraqi Premier Declares Victory Over ISIS In Mosul by Louisa Loveluck, Liz Sly and Mustafa Salim - Washington Post

Iraq’s prime minister showed up Sunday in the city of Mosul to declare victory in the nine-month battle for control of the Islamic State’s former capital in Iraq, signaling the near-end of the most grueling campaign against the extremist group to date and dealing a near-fatal blow to the survival of its self-declared caliphate.

Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi has arrived in Mosul to personally congratulate the Iraqi security forces “on achieving victory,” a statement from his office said.

The official Twitter account of the prime minister tweeted a photo of him shaking hands and congratulating Iraqi forces for liberating the city.

But in a sign of how tenaciously the Islamic State has fought, even as Abadi was touring the town the sound of airstrikes echoed through the skies and smoke rose from the last pocket of territory the militants control, thought to be no more than 200 yards long and 50 yards wide.

The confusion of the moment came as a reminder that even though a complete victory now seems assured, it has come at a tremendous price.

The conquest brings to a close the toughest battle yet in the Islamic State war, one that lasted far longer than anticipated. When the offensive was launched last October, U.S. officials were privately predicting a two-month fight, and expressed hope that mass civilian displacement and widespread destruction could be avoided…

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Take It from 3 Former Ambassadors: Neglecting Diplomacy Will Hurt America by Frank G. Wisner, William Luers and Thomas Pickering - The National Interest

“Our military leaders and our diplomats not only represent a symbol of America’s enduring commitment to the region, but they also build trust through partnerships that have an important stabilizing effect when trouble looms.”—General James N. Mattis, March 1, 2011

The Trump administration’s budgetary proposals and decisions reflect a growing gap between strong support for increased military action and capability, and a significant reduction in budgetary support for diplomacy. Military force alone cannot secure America’s national-security objectives; they can only be met through a solid fusion of force and diplomacy.

Without a robust political and diplomatic component, no foreign- and security-policy strategy can succeed.

The numbers only partly explain the new priorities. The administration proposes a 10 percent increase in the Pentagon’s budget and a 29 percent decrease in State’s.

In the first hearings explaining President Trump’s national-security budget, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told Congress, “The first responsibility of government is the security of its own citizens, and we will orient our diplomatic efforts toward fulfilling that commitment.”

To be sure, protecting American citizens must be the president’s first responsibility. But if the United States is to invest in greatly increasing its hard power to sustain the most powerful military in the world, it must expend greater resources to strengthen America’s smart power and its stature as the global leader of humanitarian causes, cultural exchange, and international economic cooperation and development. These are powerful tools in today’s diplomacy…

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