Allegedly, back in the middle of November, we had ISIS contained, according to the President. This statement was was exposed as a tragic farce when ISIS attacked Paris literally the next day. Obama’s defenders have claimed that what Obama was trying to say was that ISIS’s territory in the Middle East was contained.

It seems that we are probably moving in the wrong direction on that score, as Obama’s Secretary of Defense was forced to admit today that they have not, in fact, contained ISIS at all. Not to worry, though, we are “gaining momentum” against ISIS!

McCain: Congressman Forbes asked General Dunford, quote, have we currently contained ISIL? General Dunford: We have not contained ISIL. Uh, Mr. Secretary, do you agree with General Dunford?

Carter: I agree with what General Dunford said, yes.

McCain: So if we have not contained ISIL, how are we to believe that we are succeeding against ISIL?

Carter: I think that we are, um, building momentum against ISIL.

Call me crazy, but if we used to have ISIS contained, but now we do not have them contained, then that is not “building momentum.” In fact, it’s more or less the opposite of building momentum.

Of course, the alternate explanation here is that the President did not know what he was talking about in the first place when he said that ISIS was contained. Which doesn’t really bode well for the idea that anything he or his administration says on whether we are winning against ISIS or not shoudl be taken seriously in the future.