Crushing the caliphate

TWO years after he vowed to “degrade and ultimately destroy” Islamic State (IS), Barack Obama is at last close to honouring his commitment. In the early hours of October 17th a long-planned military operation was launched to retake Mosul, Iraq’s second city. The battle will involve the Iraqi army, Kurdish soldiers, Shia militias, American special forces and the air power of a Western-led coalition. Mosul matters: it is the place from which the IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared his “caliphate”. The jihadists’ motto is “remain and expand”, but their state is fast retreating and shrinking.There is little doubt that Mosul will fall (see ). But how it is taken will determine whether the battle marks a lasting victory against jihadism or another chapter in the unending agony of the Arab world. If Iraq is ever to attain stability, its leaders must find ways of assuaging the resentment of its once-dominant Sunni Arab minority, and giving it a political voice.