The former top U.S. commander in Iraq and Afghanistan says the fight against Islamic extremism is a generational struggle that will take decades to win.
“This is going to be a task of a generation. We used to say this is a marathon not a sprint about endeavors in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s more than that. This is an ultra-marathon,” retired Gen. Davis Petraeus told a conference in Washington sponsored by the U.S. Global leadership Coalition.
The former U.S. Central Command chief and CIA director called for the nation and the world to “pull together” in the wake of the Orlando massacre, and in particular to avoid hate speech that he said feeds into the Islamic State’s narrative that the West is at war with Islam.
“It is a struggle for the heart of the Muslim world. We should recognize this is for more of a clash within a civilization, the Islamic world, than it is a clash between civilizations,” Petraeus said.
Without naming Donald Trump, Petraeus seemed to reject the view that U.S. involvement in other countries should be limited to cases where there is a direct benefit to America.
Calling American leadership in the world imperative, Petraeus said, “We have got to be involved, and the truth is where we are not, the situation tends to get worse. Where we are, there is the prospect that it can get better.”
The former four-star general, one of the most celebrated commanders in modern history, also appeared to reject Trump’s call for restricting the entrance of Muslims into America.
“Certainly you should do the background checks, certainly you should safeguard against individuals who wish us ill,” Petraeus said. “But you don’t do that I don’t think by exclusive or hate speech or other types of responses. I think you do that by pulling together.”
Petraeus argued that the U.S. will need to work with Muslim partners both in the U.S. and abroad if the threat from the Islamic State is to be defeated.
“Our successes against Islamic extremists have typically been either helped or even enabled by Islamic partners, by Muslim partners, Islamic leaders around the world.
“And this is the time again when all should reach out to each other, absolutely denounce the abhorrent action that’s taken place, and work together to figure out how it is that we can identify situations like this to the very best of our ability, and how we can make it more difficult for such individuals to get what it is they have used to kill so many fellow Americans.”
