Yesterday, US Special Operations Forces carried out a raid that resulted in the death of the titular leader is ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This is President Trump’s press conference on the event.

Trump says he watched most of the special forces raid. Describes an operation where #IS's leader fled into a tunnel with several of his children and detonated his vest. Trump says nonetheless that positive ID was possible. pic.twitter.com/bdP1CyaNmQ

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says that the #US has a long reach against all terrorists, #ISIS and others, reminds viewers that Al-Qaeda's Hamza bin Ladin, who was "saying very bad things" about America and its allies, was recently killed. pic.twitter.com/brPnZqkWlc

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump thanked "Russia, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and the "Syrian Kurds" (SDF/PKK) for the information that led to #IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's demise. pic.twitter.com/8JjZYWYtA7

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says #IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been tracked for several weeks, several raids have been cancelled when ABB changed his plans on where he was supposed to move, and the raid began by punching through the wall of the compound because the front door was booby trapped. pic.twitter.com/ZUQhMNXNMt

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says:

– The #SDF/#PKK gave "some information that turned out to be helpful" in killing the #IS leader

– #Turkey "knew we were going in" ahead of time, gave access to airspace etc.. They were "terrific", Trump adds. pic.twitter.com/1LM5VwkI2l

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says one US search dog was wounded in the raid that killed #IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, but no US personnel were killed. By Trump's telling, large numbers of IS jihadists were killed in this operation; he says an exact estimate will be released soon. pic.twitter.com/LZiUxdRoaX

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says he sent his tweet last night (Something very big has just happened!") after the US troops on their way to kill #IS's leaders had landed in a "very friendly port in a friendly country". pic.twitter.com/JGx4pqUWuC

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump is elaborating on others, like #Russia, needing to deal with #IS rather than the #US doing it for them for free. Is very "disappointed" in #Europe, wanted them to take jihadists and said, "I'm gonna drop 'em right on your border and you can have fun trying to capture them". pic.twitter.com/QwliJz5BC3

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says that some number of #IS fighters surrendered and were taken into US custody in the raid that killed the caliph. pic.twitter.com/QidaliA4qn

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says that the US forces took surface-to-air fire on the way to get the #IS leader, but he is not sure that this was organised defensive fire. It could have been "random people who don't like helicopters". pic.twitter.com/CItBRtaBOz

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump: "I don't have a Syria pullout, I just don't want to guard Turkey and Syria for the rest of our lives. It's very expensive, very dangerous, they've been fighting for centuries. … Now, I will secure the oil … but that's tremendous money". pic.twitter.com/o3bEO6Akqn

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump says that he wrote a book before 9/11, "a really very successful book", where he predicted that Usama bin Ladin was "big trouble" and should be captured and killed. "I don't get any credit for this, but that's okay, I never do". pic.twitter.com/VFQ8Q8k5od

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Trump concludes with what Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did to Kayla Mueller. "He was an animal, and he was a gutless animal". pic.twitter.com/png8OeX8gs

— Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) October 27, 2019

Big picture here is that regardless of the press release war, there is obviously coordination going on between the US and Russia and Syria and Turkey to eradicate ISIS so that they can get on with the serious business of killing one another.

This raid marks a stark departure from the Obama era of killing everything that moved with drone strikes. I’m not opposed to killing people who need it but you are always better off capturing senior people than killing them. While al-Bagdadi blew himself up, the raid site was exploited. Prisoners were taken. Documents and electronic devices seized. This will lead to a cascade of raids and attacks based on this information.

A lot of the folks you see on TV & in print have built careers out of hyping the ISIS threat. No one seemed willing to report the reality that the territorial caliphate was wiped off of the map. They needed the ISIS bogeyman to remain relevant and double down on failed ideas.

— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) October 27, 2019

Strategically, this probably will be seen as the last gasp of ISIS. It was already nearly eradicated. Funding and volunteers were drying up. When al-Baghdadi was killed he was hiding in a city in a hostile area. Hardly the mark of someone who is about to make a comeback. I’ve never been convinced ISIS mattered, but if it once did, it no longer does.

I’m glad Baghdadi is dead. And we owe a huge debt of gratitude to the brave special operators who conducted the raid.

But it would not have been possible without some US presence and a relationship with the Kurds…a presence and relationship Trump has repeatedly tried to end.

— Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) October 27, 2019

This take by an Obama toadie is just bullsh**. This operation was possible because despite the press’s brainless jihad about Russia, sane people maintained a relationship with them that allowed US overflight to get our assault force in and out. That counts.

The circumstances of al-Baghdadi’s death–described as only Trump can describe things–is not going to help his cause

https://twitter.com/SirJadeja/status/1188457915759378433

This, like taking out bin Laden, is a great publicity exercise but probably of limited import. Both al Qaeda and ISIS were on the run and on their last legs when their leaders were taken out. Both of their leaders were isolated and in hiding. They will both limp around for awhile longer but they are a spent force. But the good news about radical Islam is that there is always another transnational terrorist movement in the making, so we’ll be doing this same press conference again in a few years.

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