![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/5e31ba1c2030271ba702eca5.jpg\")
\u00a9 Reuters \/ Leah Millis<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
RT.com<\/p>\n
During self-congratulatory remarks about his \u201cdeal of the century\u201d to solve the Israel-Palestine conflict, Donald Trump threw in another boast; he claimed US forces defeated \u201c100 percent\u201d of the Islamic State caliphate. Have they?<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks to the courage of US forces, the ISIS territorial caliphate \u2014 100 percent \u2014 not 95 percent, not 99 or any other percent \u2014 100 percent of their caliphate, ISIS, is destroyed,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n The irony is not lost that Trump made the comment while announcing details of what appears to be a dead-on-arrival Middle East peace deal, which he insists amounts to an\u00a0\u201chistoric breakthrough,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0despite plenty of\u00a0evidence<\/a>\u00a0to the contrary. Such dramatic and exaggerated language is, after all, typical of Trump\u2019s \u2018best president ever\u2019 brand.<\/p>\n Of course, it makes sense to boast about your deal-making skills only if both sides of a conflict have actually agreed to the deal. Likewise, with a problem like Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS), it would seem prudent to hold off on triumphant declarations of success until they can be fully backed up by reality on the ground.<\/p>\n While it is true that IS has lost its territorial caliphate, the group, experts say, is still very much active \u2014 and regaining strength. It was only weeks ago that the Pentagon was\u00a0warning<\/a>\u00a0of a resurgence in IS activity in civil-war ravaged Libya after the chaos there, triggered by the 2011 US\/NATO bombing campaign to topple Muammar Gaddafi, left an opening for the terror group to become the\u00a0\u201cthird party\u201d<\/em>\u00a0in that conflict, as one official said.<\/p>\n Experts have also warned that flaring tensions between the US and Iran in the aftermath of the Trump administration\u2019s assassination of Qassem Soleimani, Iran\u2019s top general and frontline player in the fight against IS, provide another\u00a0opportunity<\/a>\u00a0for the group \u2014 now operating as an underground guerilla insurgency \u2014 to stage a comeback.<\/p>\n Washington put its anti-IS activities in Iraq on hold for almost two weeks to deal with an uptick in threats against its troops and bases from Iraqi militias and protesters after the Soleimani strike also took out Iraq\u2019s high-ranking general Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Trump then ignored calls from the Iraqi parliament and government to prepare for a troop withdrawal, sparked by Iraqi fears that the country would become a battleground in a war between the US and Iran.<\/p>\n All of these rising tensions naturally take the focus off IS, which is using the distractions to reorganize and revive itself wherever it can. Emboldened by Soleimani\u2019s death, IS cells have reportedly been intensifying their deadly ambush attacks in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Trump has claimed all of the credit for defeating IS. He made the same claim in a speech earlier this month addressing Tehran\u2019s missile strikes on US bases in Iraq, and on numerous occasions before that. In fact, by March 2019, he had already made similar claims no less than 16 times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s words are clearly designed to give the impression of an absolute American victory under his leadership, but it\u2019s worth remembering that IS lost its physical territories not solely due to the\u00a0\u201ccourage of US forces\u201d<\/em>\u00a0as Trump framed it, but thanks also, in large part, to the efforts of the Russian, Syrian, Iraqi, and Iranian militaries\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/em>and, of course, the Kurdish militias who were later abandoned by the US.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Trump may be a serial offender, his pompous attitude is not much different from the glory-hogging that has always been typical of how Washington portrays its role in conflicts abroad. Indeed, just last week, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave a speech on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz which made it sound<\/a>\u00a0like US troops, rather than Soviet ones, had liberated the notorius Nazi death camp.<\/p>\n Yesterday, IS militants\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0opened fire on fishermen working along the Tigris river in Iraq, killing one and injuring another. It was just the latest in a series of deadly attacks targeting not only military and police forces, but also civilians. On Jan 14, IS fighters stole 2,000 cattle from a village in Syria and ambushed Syrian military forces who were sent to the area, killing 11 troops and two shepherds.<\/p>\n While Trump\u2019s American fans might erupt into raucous cheers when he declares the terror group crushed, it\u2019s a\u00a0different story<\/a>\u00a0for civilians in the region who\u00a0\u201cdon\u2019t dare leave their homes after sunset\u201d<\/em>\u00a0for fear of attacks by barbaric militants.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s comments on IS \u2014 which are a clear misrepresentation of reality and designed more to win political brownie points ahead of the election season than they are to reflect a more complicated truth \u2014 are a useful reminder that one should always take statements from Washington with a generous grain of salt.<\/p>\n