Gen. Dempsey Says Military Might Alone Won’t Beat ISIS
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ABC News(WASHINGTON) — U.S. military might alone won’t defeat the Islamic State, according to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Gen. Martin Dempsey told reporters that any long-term strategy to defeat the extremist group now operating in both Syria and Iraq must involve Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Dempsey says given the brutality ISIS has demonstrated against the Iraqis and U.S. journalist James Foley, other governments should become “willing partners” to “squeeze ISIS from multiple directions in order to initially disrupt it and eventually defeat it.”
The nation’s top general says that American airstrikes have slowed the radicals’ momentum but it will take more than bombs to crush ISIS.
Since the group has enlisted Sunnis disenfranchised with the direction of the Iraqi government, Dempsey urged both political and diplomatic solutions to convince the country’s minority that “ISIS is not the path to their future.”
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