No kidding. I've been saying the same thing myself for years. How is it, that the most powerful army in the world cannot defeat a group of guys holed up in some desert?
Over several years, ISIS controlled several (many) oil fields in Northern Iraq/Syria. This was allowed to occur and we could have easily bombed those sites. It's not like they could have moved the pumps. But we didn't. Any they pumped that oil. They shipped it through Turkey (even though Turkey denies it). They made millions upon millions. And we let that continue. Everyone knew what was happening.
They used that money to fuel the spread of their ideology. In an area where many people have literally nothing it was easy for them to buy into it. Of course the seemingly never-ending wars solidified their belief that the US was evil.
I am sure that we can all agree that we the United States is strong enough to defeat them provided we are willing to use our power.
ISIS even has a small bit of land on the coast of Libya. It is just screaming to be bombed. But we don't.
Therefore, the answer to all of this is obvious. We simply don't want to. They are us. We created them. We thought we could control them.
At first, we thought they were the rebels fighting Asad in Syria. And we hate Asad because he won't let a pipeline from Saudi being built through his country without a hefty cut. So we want him out. Russia backs Asad because of this because if that pipeline is built Russia is economically destroyed as Russia's wealth is mostly oil flowing through to Europe. If Europe gets that oil through a new pipeline from Saudi->Syria->Turkey and into Europe then they don't need it from Russia.
And the downfall of Russia was always the goal because they are holding out on joining this "globalization" scheme that most of the rest of the world has jumped on. More specifically, it is Putin that is the problem in the eyes of the West.
So, for that reason, heads will keep rolling via terror attacks in the west until Asad is out. So, they are us and we are simply collateral damage.
Or rather, they were us. Every day, I pray to god that Trump wipes them off the planet along with anyone else that wants to follow them.