Trump has repeatedly claimed that he would adopt a "secret plan" to destroy ISIS, but the official, not-secret plan has arrived and it's basically President Obama's plan.
The plan calls for continued bombing; beefing up support and assistance to local forces to retake its Iraqi stronghold Mosul and ultimately the ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria; drying up ISIS's sources of income; and stabilizing the areas retaken from ISIS, the officials say. [...]
The Pentagon's ISIS plan highlights four "next plays," say officials who've seen it, suggesting "acceleration" in all of them. The "next plays" include "Support Iraqi Security Forces to capture Mosul" and "Support and develop more local forces in Syria." Both of those efforts have been underway for nearly a year.
While it's amusing to see the Trump regime try to claim a carbon-copy of an Obama-era strategy as their own, this doesn't necessarily mean they'll be as successful at implementing it as the Obama administration was.
If this report from NBC News is accurate, the new plan calls for a greater emphasis on diplomacy which, anyone who has paid any attention can tell you, the Trump regime does not excel at.
[Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis] said the preliminary plan sent to the White House is a grand strategy - which places even more emphasis on diplomacy, economics and information than it does on the military. It creates, he says, a framework for more tactical questions to be answered later.
The Trump regime has more or less dismantled the State Department and doesn't appear to be interested in diplomacy at all. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, for his part, is an ineffectual figurehead who has no authority or capability to settle disputes and plenty of freedom to ignite them.
If permanently defeating ISIS requires diplomacy and intellectual finesse, they won't be defeated anytime soon.