Dempsey is "encouraged but pragmatic" about Iraq against ISIL

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) The US chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army General Martin Dempsey, has stated that he is "encouraged but pragmatic" about progress in Iraq to counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Gen. Dempsey, who has just returned from a trip to Iraq, added in the (Defense One Summit) here that he met with US service members and Iraqi and Kurdish leaders, emphasizing "the new (Iraqi) leaders inherited deep structural disarray." The chairman affirmed "they are going to need a combination of courage, luck and leadership to manage their way through this." He stated that the new Iraqi government "has dismissed a number of military leaders and seeks to appoint more competent leaders from all sectors of Iraq to replace them." Gen.Dempsey affirmed that "Iraq's security force is having some tactical success in pushing ISIL away from Baghdad," nevertheless "it will take time," he asserted.

He then said, "Over the next few months, with the help of our advisors and the training effort we have started as well as the military campaign from the air, I think there will be progress on the ground," adding that "they are doing much better, but they have some deep structural vulnerability that must be fixed." Comparing his involvement in the Gulf War in 1991 where he was a battalion commander and as a commander of Multinational Security Transition Command Iraq in 2003, Dempsey affirmed that "this one (ISIL) is different." "Instead of grabbing ahold of it and owning it, and gradually transitioning back, we're telling (the Iraqis) from the start that this is about you, this has to be your campaign," he said.

He emphasized that United States has a strategy to go after ISIL however, that strategy is "going to change" and it "will change often" but the objective to defeat ISIL will not change.