January 12, 2017 Defeating ISIL on the Physical Battlefield Is Not Enough By General Joseph L. Votel, LTC Christina Bembenek, Charles Hans, Jeffery Mouton and Amanda Spencer Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Print Many policymakers, intelligence analysts, and academics believe expelling the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from Mosul and Raqqah is the key to the terrorist group’s defeat and the destruction of its self-declared caliphate. This is only partially correct.
