This is reminiscent of battles in Viet Nam, where huge amounts of soldiers’ blood and war material were used up to take a certain objective, then the next day, after the objective had been achieved, the force that had been so bloodied so severely is ordered to withdraw.
Longer time span, but we withdrew, and you see the consequences.
Those were the result of the strategy of the US’s worst general, William Westmoreland. His idea was to engage the enemy in a war of attrition out beyond where the Vietnamese population lived. Thus allowing the enemies guerilla forces to have sway over a good chunk of the population. Westmoreland was replaced by Gen. Abrams who reversed the strategy. Abrams used his resources to secure the population from enemy control and did not play into the enemies hand by engaging in large unit battles out in the hinterlands, on the enemies terms. By the end of the US’s ground war, Jan 1973, 85% of South Vietnam’s population was under firm control.
We are engaging in the same semantics today. When the Pentagon says that ISIS is losing territory, they are referring to empty desert, not large population centers.