Kerry has given a large number of interviews and speeches in the last week or so.

[karynnj]

4. It is interesting to contemplate ... especially as the incoming administration has not even tried

to review where the State Department sees things going.

I was going to write that I hope that they won't get credit for cleaning up things where it will be ignored that many things are on a path to be cleaned up. That seems the case with the Anti ISIS coalition, where the Iraqis predict that Mosul will be reclaimed within 3 or so months -- meaning that ISIS will be almost entirely out of Iraq. The efforts of the coalition to help areas won back recover through demining and restoring governance are designed to be a more robust stable "peace" than existed when the US left Iraq. The best thing would be if the coalition continues to press Iraq to insure that the Sunni population has some power and some voice. That would leave ISIS only in Syria, where it has been complicated by the civil war. I hope they are pushed to Geneva and that they can find a solution.

But, after starting to write from that perspective, I realized that the important thing is that these things do happen. I also think that - even if Trump or Putin claims credit - the important think for both Obama and Kerry will be that the fighting has ceased or at least been greatly diminished ... and that was what they were fighting and working hard for.

I suspect that just as Obama could not quickly change what the Bush administration was doing, the Trump administration will likely not change anything quickly either. The ISIS effort is led by the military and it is not clear if Mattis gets in that he would order any major change.