--- title: U.S. Steps Up War Against Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria description: Pentagon reports some good news from the front canonical: https://time.com/3641742/isis-pentagon-isil-daesh-kurds-iraq-syria/ author: Mark Thompson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-19T13:54:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:11.069Z article:section: Politics og:title: U.S. Steps Up War Against Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria og:description: Pentagon reports some good news from the front og:url: https://time.com/3641742/isis-pentagon-isil-daesh-kurds-iraq-syria/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9754e63619c033d/6987701706f2c1f9fa333036/hires_140923-n-mt637-071a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4215 og:image:height: 2371 og:image:alt: George H.W. Bush is supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: U.S. Steps Up War Against Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria twitter:description: Pentagon reports some good news from the front twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc9754e63619c033d/6987701706f2c1f9fa333036/hires_140923-n-mt637-071a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Taking the Crisis Out of ISIS > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME D.C. Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition D.C. Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. Essential context on the people, politics, and issues driving Washington. D.C. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: What the ISIS Flag Says About the Militant Group [Watch (HLS stream): What the ISIS Flag Says About the Militant Group](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QFjP70IG.m3u8) (2:12)  _Published 2014-09-17. The black and white standard of the Sunni militants gives some insight into how the group sees itself_ by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Dec 19, 2014 1:54 PM UTC  An F-18 leaves it carrier for a bombing run against ISIS targets. An F-18 leaves it carrier for a bombing run against ISIS targets. Navy photo / Robert Burck by [Mark Thompson](https://time.com/author/mark-thompson/) ## Mark Thompson Dec 19, 2014 1:54 PM UTC After four months of stalemate in the U.S.-led air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria, the U.S. military finally expressed measured optimism Thursday over the course of the campaign. “We’re seeing initial successes in this fight,” Army Lieut. General James Terry [told](http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5559) reporters at the Pentagon. “My assessment is that Daesh has been halted in transitioning to the defense and is attempting to hold what they currently have.” The Pentagon has begun referring to ISIS—which is also know as ISIL, for the Islamic State in the Levant—as Daesh, after prodding from its allies. In Arabic, Daesh and ISIL sound alike, although “daesh” literally means “to crush underneath the foot,” Terry said. “Our partners, at least the ones that I work with, ask us to use that, because they feel that if you use ISIL, that you legitimize a self-declared caliphate, and they feel pretty strongly that we should not be doing that.” ISIS forces still control roughly a third of Iraq and Syria. Regaining major territory in both nations won’t be possible until local ground forces can be assembled and trained to take the fight to the Islamic militants in the major cities they now hold. The launch of any such single counter-offensive is months away, and will take years to drive ISIS from all the cities, Pentagon officials believe. Later Thursday, the Pentagon’s top spokesman said air strikes over the last month have killed senior ISIS officials. “Since mid-November, targeted coalition airstrikes successfully killed multiple \[ISIS\] senior and mid-level leaders,” Rear Admiral John Kirby said. The _Wall Street Journal_ [reported](http://www.wsj.com/news/article%5Femail/several-islamic-state-leaders-have-been-killed-in-iraq-u-s-says-1418926663-lMyQjAxMTE0ODEwOTcxNDk1Wj) that three senior leaders had been killed. “We believe that the loss of these key leaders degrades \[ISIS’s\] ability to command and control current operations against Iraqi Security Forces, including Kurdish and other local forces in Iraq,” Kirby added in a statement. The U.S. and its allies have conducted 1,361 air strikes since August, with [86%](http://time.com/3636886/isis-united-states-allies-iraq-syria/) of those carried out by U.S. warplanes (the U.S. has carried out [97%](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/17/us-mideast-crisis-syria-strikes-exclusiv-idUSKBN0JV2JB20141217) of the strikes in Syria this month, Reuters reports). The Pentagon statements didn’t occur in a vacuum. Last week, lawmakers on the House Foreign Affairs Committee expressed ire at the slow pace of the war against ISIS. “Does the United States have some other strategic plan other than arming these \[Syrian\] folks that aren’t going to show up till 2016, [dropping bombs](http://time.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/airpower%5F30%5Fnovember%5F2014.pdf), that are marginal whether they’ve been successful, and helping with military aid to some of these coalition countries?” Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, asked Brett McGurk, the Obama Administration’s anti-ISIS envoy. “It was designed,” McGurk said, “to be a long-term program.” _Read next:_ [_U.S. Kills 3 ISIS Leaders in Iraq Strikes, Officials Say_](http://time.com/3640981/three-isis-leaders-killed/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] Images of masked militants carrying the stark black and white flag of ISIS, with the Islamic State in Iraq and greater Syria, have become commonplace across the Middle East. But what does the standard of the self- declared Islamic State say about the group and its supporters [ MUSIC ] The color, calligraphy, and choice of words on the flag reveal the group's history and also, its goals. The coarse, handwritten, Arabic script and white circle in the middle of the Isis flag are a copy of what's known as the seal of Mohammed. Which the prophet himself is believed to have used in his lifetime to seal letters he wrote to foreign leaders. The use of that seal has a veneer of historical authenticity to ISIS's mission. The symbolic weight of its stark black and white tones is meant to represent the solid blank flag of the prophet Muhammad's war banner. [ MUSIC ] Experts say there's a kind of Islamic end of days element to the flag, pitting the forces of Islam against the Christian west. But the words on the flag are just as important. The power of the flag comes from the use of the words, there is no god but god. The word Allah is seen as sacred by Muslims and hence it becomes sacrilegious to desecrate the flag across the Muslim world. For example, the Lebanese government, no fan of ISIS, called for burning the flag. To be banned, as burning anything with word Allah on it is viewed as an insult to Islam. The use of the flag is a conscious attempt by Isis to root itself in the history of Jihad and the desire to establish a [ UNKNOWN ], or Islamic State. Perhaps, the better we understand the group's symbol, the better we'll understand the cause. 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