In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary nominee James Mattis called for an integrated strategy to deliver a “very hard blow” to the Islamic State.
“We have to deliver a very hard blow against ISIS in the Middle East so that there’s no sense of invulnerability or invincibility there,” Mattis said at his confirmation hearing Thursday.
“There’s got to be a military defeat of them there,” Mattis said, “but it must be a much broader approach.
Mattis said he will recommend an integrated strategy, “so you don’t squeeze them in one place, and then they develop in another and we are really right back to square one.”
Mattis testified that for any strategy to succeed it must target recruiting and fundraising by the terrorist group, as well as delivering a military blow against them.
“That way you slow down this growth, and start rolling them back.”
