Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he was “very comfortable” with the evolving U.S. strategy to defeat the Islamic State, including the Obama administration’s Monday announcement that 200 additional advisers will be deployed to the region.
“It is necessary to destroy ISIL in its parent tumor of this cancer, which is here and Iraq and Syria. That’s where this thing arose in the first place and we need to destroy it there physically, but also we need to destroy the idea that their can be a state based upon this evil ideology,” Carter told “NBC Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt from Baghdad on Monday.
The top Pentagon official called on the U.S. to be “more aggressive in the moves” it makes to defeat the terrorist group on its home turf. Carter said U.S. strategy to fight the Islamic jihadists has worked already, noting a 40 percent decrease in the group’s territory since American forces got involved.
Defense also recently approved the launching of mobile rockets and has sent additional Apache helicopters to U.S. bases in the region. But Carter said the deployment, in addition to the about 5,000 advisers already there, does not mean the Pentagon is changing its strategy to defeat the Islamic State nor will it support sending ground troops to the region.
“These are capabilities that will continue accelerating the defeat of ISIL,” Carter said. “I’m very comfortable that our operational approach is the right one.”
