A new report questions whether "decapitation" strikes on terrorists in remote parts of the globe have much affect on terrorism as a whole.
The Washington Post brings up the case of
Nasir al-Wuhayshi, al-Qaida's No. 2 leader who was killed in a recent U.S. airstrike.
The terror group said it promoted another man, Qassim al-Raimi, to take his place. Al-Wuhayshi had been in control of the group's Yemeni affiliate, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
"The decapitation campaign of AQ senior leadership has left the group with diminishing capabilities to drive the global terrorist movement and to threaten the West as they once did," Juan Zarate, a former senior counterterrorism adviser to President George W. Bush, told the Post.
Zarate said the most recent U.S. military operations, however, "have little relevance to what ISIS is building and growing in the heart of the Middle East, and may actually strengthen their hand in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Libya."
Over the past decade, the U.S. military has killed several high-ranking members of Al-Qaida, from Osama bin Laden to Anwar al-Awlaki. But with offshoots like its branch in Yemen, it's hard to tell if the group is actually weakening.
Further, the absence of a true central government in Libya and Yemen has allowed terror groups to move in and set up camp.
ISIS has turned into one of the biggest threats to the Western world, thanks in part to its
high-tech means of messaging and reaching out to its followers across the world.
There are now fears ISIS could construct a nuclear bomb after news reports said the group has
radioactive material.
Critics of the Obama administration do not think the president is doing all he can to combat the spread of ISIS.
"Last week you had [White House Press Secretary] Josh Earnest up behind the podium reassuring everybody that we had the right strategy in Iraq to deal with ISIS. His boss says we really don't have a strategy," retired Col. Patrick Murray
told Newsmax TV last week.
"It's a little embarrassing for the administration and it's a little humiliating for the United States of America because … ISIS has a strategy and they're busy taking cities and terrain and slaughtering Christians, anybody in their path."