U.S.-backed Syria forces seize Raqa Old City from IS

A Russian friend of mine said ISIS would be routed in a matter of days after Russia got their military involved. That's probably close to a year ago.

Yet despite that, and barrel bombs, and chemical weapons, these ragtag terrorists with used Toyota trucks still control a lot of the country.

Why can't the Russians succeed?

The Iraqi army's quick rout of ISIS at Tal Afar shows how far the Iraqi army has improved and how weak ISIS has become

Meanwhile, the Kurds have won more than anything - they were denied Syrian citizenship by the Assad regimes since 1962, but when Raqa falls, they would have carved themselves a sizable chunk of land that'll likely become at least semi-autonomous like they have in northeast Iraq

The strategy has worked perfectly.

But wouldn't a better strategy have been to wipe them out in a matter of days? Why didn't Russia just do that? We're talking about poorly trained terrorists in used Toyota pickups, I think is how my friend put it.