Last weekend was historic: ISIS defeated, Trump cleared

This past weekend will be remembered for many years. It was historic. Two painful and potentially very dangerous events were essentially eliminated. Both had dragged on for years. We saw the official declaration of the end of the ISIS caliphate and we concluded that “no American colluded with a foreign power” in the 2016 election.

ISIS officially defeated.

The official removal of ISIS from all of the land they once controlled was a milestone, especially considering the length of time that ISIS terrorized both the region and much of the world. ISIS’ existence was partly due to the US failure to negotiate a status of forces agreement when troops pulled out of Iraq in December 2011.

Couple that with the internal strife in Syria and with the US badly misjudging their strength, ISIS was allowed to grow. In January 2014, the prior administration called them “junior varsity” and essentially ignored them. In June 2014, ISIS declared the caliphate. By the end of 2014, ISIS controlled more than 34,000 square miles in Iraq and Syria.

ISIS fighters were brutal, killing thousands of mostly innocent people in usually a brutal, inhuman and very public manner. Even though the organization still somewhat exists and will likely take some action in the future, they have been…