ISIS scored an apparent massive win today, capturing the Anbar Province capital of Ramadi, and sending Iraqi ground troops into retreat. The US is scrambling to send new arms to them.

Despite this, the US commander of the war says the whole defeat “did not represent a setback” and that the US still considers ISIS to be “on the defensive.”

“We firmly believe ISIS is on the defensive throughout Iraq and Syria,” insisted Gen. Weidley, adding that things like the fall of Ramadi were “episodic, temporary successes.”

That the US is coupling what it is presenting as an irrelevant loss with a scramble to send new weapons suggests the general’s comments are largely for the sake of Western media outlets, and trying to put a brave face on a war that is not going well at all.