Trump Is Granting The Military Much More Leeway In Bombing ISIS

The Trump administration has given the U.S. military significantly more leeway to use whatever means it sees fit in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism, senior officials say, in stark contrast to the Obama administration.

“There’s nothing formal, but it is beginning to take shape,” a senior U.S. defense told The Wall Street Journal. “There is a sense among these commanders that they are able to do a bit more — and so they are.”

President Trump’s new approach is perhaps best demonstrated in the U.S. decision to drop the largest non-nuclear device in the military’s arsenal — “the mother of all bombs” — on the Islamic State in Afghanistan Thursday. The blast ignited a media sensation, and killed nearly 100 ISIS fighters.

“It’s not the same as it was, you don’t have to ask us before you drop a MOAB,” a senior military official told TheWSJ, using the acronym for the large bomb. “Technically there’s no piece of paper that says you have to ask the president to drop a MOAB. But last year this time, the way [things were] meant, ‘I’m going to drop a MOAB, better let the White House know.'”

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