Once resigned to the trash heap of history by a jubilant President Donald Trump, Islamic State is witnessing a revival in the remote desert regions of Syria and Iraq, where teams of fighters have emerged over the course of the past few weeks to launch a series of attacks on Iraqi and Syrian civilians and security forces, killing scores. The scope and scale of these attacks has taken regional analysts by surprise. But while it is very unlikely that a weakened Islamic State would be able to replicate its 2014 successes today, the fact that it has been able to resurrect a meaningful armed presence inside Syria and Iraq points to serious deficiencies in the ability of the US military to finish the job when it comes to the defeat of the jihadist group. Yet at the same time, the group's resurgence also allows the US — and those in Iraq's northern Sunni regions that back the US' continued presence in the country — to build a case for US troops to remain in Iraq indefinitely.
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