A missed opportunity to break up ISIL. We were focused on the wrong stuff.

ISIL is an open source insurgency.

That means it is composed of many groups. Groups that don't share the same motivation for war.  

Yet, all of these groups can work together if they agree on a single goal.

Occasionally, fractures in the insurgency emerge.  

Usually this is due to a power grab by one of the groups in the insurgency after a string of victories.   

When this happens, the insurgency is vulnerable.

That's exactly what happened in Iraq a couple of months ago according to AJ.

Sunni insurgent groups like Naqshbandi, the Mujahedeen army, the Rashedoun army , Ansar al-Islam and Ansar al-Sunnah started to put some distance between themselves and ISIL.  

ISIL was able to negotiate a settlement in September.  It's sending these groups more money and weapons, as well as allowing them to take a defensive (rather than an offensive) role in the conflict.  

The rift was healed and the opportunity lost.  

I guess the collective west was too busy sending jets to bomb sand (futile) and setting up a divisional HQ (for careerists to get their tickets punched) in Iraq to notice.  What a joke.