President Obama and the Pentagon have been giving priority to first weakening and then eliminating Isis , and have been having a fair measure of success . The Iraqi army backed by US - led air strikes have recaptured Fallujah and the self - declared Caliphate has suffered a series of defeats in both Iraq and Syria . But Hillary Clinton ’s expected choice as Defence Secretary , Michèle Flournoy , has just co - authored a report by the Centre for a New American Security ( CNAS ) in Washington that recommends contact.requestadvise.meet that the destruction of Isis should no longer be the overriding objective of the US in Syria , but that equal priority should be given to taking military action against President Bashar al - Assad and the Syrian Army . A new pro - US armed opposition would be built up to fight Assad , Isis , al - Nusra and other al - Qaeda clones , a process that the report admits could take years – and “ during that time the dangers posed by Isis will remain ” . This is not a marginal opinion among hawks in Washington , as a recently leaked memo from 51 serving State Department officials argued very much the same thing .