One of life's imponderable problems is to decide whether the glass of water we've been drinking is half full or half empty.  The same problem arises in deciding on the present condition of ISIS – whether it is declining or remaining a potent terrorist force. In his press conference on February 4, 2016, White House spokesperson Josh Earnest told his questioner that new U.S. intelligence reports estimate that the number of ISIS fighters in Iraq and Syria had declined from about 31,000 two years ago to 25,000 today.  This decline is said to have occurred because of battlefield casualties, desertions and defections to other groups, financial problems, the enhanced performance of Iraqi security forces on the battlefield, and the campaign by the U.S.-led coalition, now supposed to number sixty-six countries, that has attacked and damaged the infrastructure of the oil fields in Iraq.  ISIS has also lost some of the territory it held, perhaps 25 percent,...(Read Full Article)