Almost like they're not serious about fighting IS

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters opposed to IS, [recruited drivers for a convoy they said] would take hundreds of families displaced by fighting from the town of Tabqa on the Euphrates river to a camp further north.

[...]

But when [the] drivers assembled their convoy early on 12 October, they realised they had been lied to. Instead, [they would be transporting] hundreds of IS fighters, their families and tonnes of weapons and ammunition.

[...]

[D]rivers were promised thousands of dollars for the task but it had to remain secret.

[...]

The deal to let IS fighters escape from Raqqa – de facto capital of their self-declared caliphate – had been arranged by local officials. It came after four months of fighting that left the city obliterated and almost devoid of people.

[...]

At the time, neither the US and British-led coalition, nor the SDF, which it backs, wanted to admit their part.

  BBC

I bet!

Great pains were taken to hide it from the world. But the BBC has spoken to dozens of people who were either on the convoy, or observed it, and to the men who negotiated the deal.

So how did the word get out?

[T]he drivers are angry. It’s weeks since they risked their lives for a journey that ruined engines and broke axles but still they haven’t been paid.

Pretty short-sighted if they were expected to keep quiet.

"We took out around 4,000 people including women and children - our vehicle and their vehicles combined. When we entered Raqqa, we thought there were 200 people to collect. In my vehicle alone, I took 112 people.”

[...]

The SDF didn’t want the retreat from Raqqa to look like an escape to victory. No flags or banners would be allowed to be flown from the convoy as it left the city, the deal stipulated.

[...]

[The convoy] included almost 50 trucks, 13 buses and more than 100 of the Islamic State group’s own vehicles.

[...]

Despite an agreement to take only personal weapons, IS fighters took everything they could carry. Ten trucks were loaded with weapons and ammunition.

And to think the US government for years refused to release even the innocent men from Guantánamo one at a time with only the clothes on their backs because "they would be back on the streets fighting us".

This wasn’t so much an evacuation - it was the exodus of so-called Islamic State.

[...]

In light of the BBC investigation, the coalition now admits the part it played in the deal. Some 250 IS fighters were allowed to leave Raqqa, with 3,500 of their family members.

[...]

“They said, 'Let us know when you rebuild Raqqa - we will come back,’” says [driver] Abu Fawzi. “They were defiant and didn’t care."

Almost everyone we spoke to [in villages along the convoy's route] says IS threatened to return, its fighters running a finger across their throats as they passed by.

“We've been living in terror for the past four or five years,” says Muhanad.

"It will take us a while to rid ourselves of that psychological fear. We feel that they may be coming back for us, or will send sleeper agents. We’re still not sure that they've gone for good.” 

And there you have the story of how "the good guys" retook Raqqa from ISIS.

Or maybe you heard this story in October:

The battle to retake Raqqa began in June 2017, led by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Syrian Kurds and Arab fighters. The SDF waged war from the ground for months, while the U.S. backed up their allies from above, pounding the city with air strikes. On Tuesday, a representative for the SDF declared the offensive over. ISIS fighters had either surrendered or been killed by SDF, a spokesman said, whose forces were clearing the city of landmines and rooting out any sleeper cells.

[...]

President Donald Trump, in an interview with radio talk-show host Chris Plante, attributed the (not-yet-confirmed by the military) victory over ISIS to himself. “I totally changed rules of engagement. I totally changed our military, I totally changed the attitudes of the military and they have done a fantastic job,” he said. “ISIS is now giving up, they are giving up, they are raising their hands, they are walking off. Nobody has ever seen that before.”

  NY Magazine

It didn't happen, and even it if had, everybody has seen that before.  Perhaps he wasn't watching Fox News during Desert Storm.  But surely most of his lickspittle followers were glued to their TVs and shouting USA! USA! USA! as scores of ill-trained and ill-equpped Iraqi fighters gave up in droves.

Not to mention every other war in the history of the world where defeated armies were permitted to surrender.

"Nobody has ever seen that before." Stupid bragging rooster. 

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.