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Edition No. 46· Today's briefing
IllustrationHindsite · Editorial Art

The airstrike paradox: why precision weapons can't win this war

Years of coalition bombing have reshaped the battlefield against Islamic State—but not the outcome.

The arithmetic of failure

On a February morning in 2017, two Hellfire missiles and a GBU-12 guided bomb struck a group of terrorists near Ramadi [18]. The UK Ministry of Defence logged it as three successful strikes. The Islamic State lost a handful of fighters. The war continued.

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The airstrike paradox: why precision weapons can't win this war — Hindsite