By Army Sgt. 1st Class Tyrone C. Marshall Jr.
DoD News, Defense Media Activity
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30, 2014 – Defense Department leaders today
praised the progress made against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in
Iraq and Syria as implementation of the broader comprehensive strategy in the
Middle East continues.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army Gen. Martin E.
Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed progress and strategy
during a Pentagon news conference.
Hagel began the news conference by highlighting the recent
transfer of two NATO bases – Camp Leatherneck and Camp Bastion -- to Afghan
security forces as part of “significant progress” in Afghanistan. He praised
U.S. forces for their service in Afghanistan, as well NATO partners, for their
contributions.
“I also want to thank our [International Security Assistance
Force] partners for what they’ve done,” he said, “and in particular, the Afghan
national security forces as they have continued to make progress -- significant
progress in defending their country.”
Turning to Iraq, the defense secretary said he spoke with
Iraqi Defense Minister Khaled al-Obeidi last week about Iraqi force
preparations to take the offensive against ISIL.
Gains in Northern and Central Iraq
“Over the past week, we’ve seen Iraqi and Kurdish forces
begin to do that,” Hagel said. “And they’ve made some gains in both northern
and central Iraq. Their initial progress is encouraging, but these are just
first steps … in what we have said will be a long and difficult multiyear
effort against ISIL by the local Iraqi forces on the ground [with] support from
the U.S, as well as coalition partners.”
Tomorrow, Hagel said, the U.S. Army’s 1st Infantry Division
headquarters will take command in Baghdad, coordinating all U.S. forces in
Iraq.
“But our military campaign is only one part of the broader
comprehensive strategy required to defeat ISIL,” he said, “choking off its
resources and recruits, and supply lines and de-legitimizing its murderous
ideology are just as important as [Iraqi] Prime Minister [Haider al] Abadi’s
efforts to build an inclusive Iraqi government that must earn the trust and
confidence of the Iraqi people.”
The Future of Syria
Hagel said the realities of ISIL controlling vast areas of
Syria and Iraq are forcing a coalition of more than 60 countries to come
together to deal with this “immediate threat.”
“The future of Syria,” he said, “which the nations of the
Middle East have a significant investment in that stability, is going to
require all elements, not only of our government, but all of the countries in
the Middle East and others working together to find a solution to bring peace
in Syria, to stabilize that region of the world.”
Officials constantly are assessing, adapting and working
through different options, Hagel said, because the situation is complicated and
long-term, and there are no short-term easy answers to it.
“That’s why we meet so often on this issue,” he said. “This
is why we are building, and continue to build, an effective coalition in the
Middle East to deal with these issues.”
Training and Equipping Moderate Opposition Update
The chairman was asked to provide an update on the status of
the department’s program to train and equip the Syrian moderate opposition.
“The command-and-control apparatus is in place,” Dempsey
said. “The sites have been selected, and the reconnaissance conducted to
determine what infrastructure we’ll need to accomplish the mission.”
Coalition partners are beginning to contribute trainers to
the efforts, he added, though the recruiting and vetting has not yet begun.
Expanding Mission Area in Iraq
Dempsey discussed the possibility of expanding the
train-advise-assist mission of U.S. forces in Iraq, currently oriented around
Irbil and Baghdad, to include Anbar province.
“There’s three components to the train-advise-assist
mission,” he explained. “Initially, the Iraqi security forces, and I include in
that the [Kurdish peshmerga forces], … mostly oriented around Baghdad and
Irbil, and then there’s the issue of the tribes and trying to find a way to …
enable them.”
Also, Dempsey said, a program is in place to begin to
restore some offensive capability and mindset to Iraqi security forces. “We
need to think about how to do that with the tribes,” he added. “We also need to
make sure that the Iraqi security forces are not spread out in ways that
prevent them from supporting each other.”
Dempsey pointed to areas such as al-Asad, and Iraqi units
such as the 7th and 9th Iraqi army divisions, which he said are “somewhat
isolated.”
The Iraqi security forces, he said, need help with planning
and executing and with linking up groups that are isolated. “And then,” he
said, “I think that becomes a platform for reaching out to the tribes.”
The third component, Dempsey said, is the national guard
concept, which -- if the Iraqi government takes a decision to form it and
passes a law -- probably would begin to be implemented in 2015.
“You need all three of those, eventually,” the chairman
said. “Right now, we’re focused on the Iraqi security forces.
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