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TexasTowelie

(112,252 posts) Thu Jul 9, 2015, 03:52 AM Jul 2015

Joint Chiefs Nominee Says He Will Assess Strategy Against IS

Source: AP

The Marine general nominated to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the U.S. and its coalition partners are making moderate progress in the fight against the Islamic State but that the strategy should be re-evaluated if efforts to improve governance and build reliable local ground forces stall.

Gen. Joseph Dunford says that if he is confirmed by the Senate he also wants to assess whether the U.S. should focus more on the Islamic State group's "shifting geographic reach" and confront the militants where they are now and where they are most likely to go in the future.

A hearing on the nomination of Dunford, the commandant of the Marine Corps, is slated for Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. His written answers to a broad range of national security questions posed by the committee were obtained by The Associated Press.

The 75-page questionnaire included a number of queries about whether the White House strategy is working in the battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. A number of senators, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the panel chairman, voiced sharp criticism during a hearing earlier this week, as they grilled Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the current Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, on the status of the fight.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/joint-chiefs-nominee-assess-strategy-32320451

3 replies

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Joint Chiefs Nominee Says He Will Assess Strategy Against IS (Original Post) TexasTowelie Jul 2015 OP

Well, Sherman A1 Jul 2015 #1

This is so unreal. delrem Jul 2015 #2

As long as he consults for and with the House of Saud he will no doubt be confirmed. Ford_Prefect Jul 2015 #3

Sherman A1

(38,958 posts)

1. Well,

Reply to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Thu Jul 9, 2015, 04:28 AM

Jul 2015

that is part of the job. He and many others are supposed to assess strategy for this and other situations around the world.

delrem

(9,688 posts)

2. This is so unreal.

Reply to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Thu Jul 9, 2015, 06:41 AM

Jul 2015

The US strategy to date is to take out Iraq, Lybia, and now engage in "regime change" operations to take out Syria, where "moderate rebels" are being directly financed and equipped and trained. "Islamic State" is just collateral damage, just as the fallout from supporting bin Laden, in the first place, is collateral damage.

Doesn't anyone think the world is due for a total change in strategy, away from this 14 year long neocon nightmare?

(eta: I neglected to note the original operation to take out Afghanistan, an operation that's also forever ongoing.)

Ford_Prefect

(7,901 posts)

3. As long as he consults for and with the House of Saud he will no doubt be confirmed.

Reply to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Thu Jul 9, 2015, 07:34 AM

Jul 2015

Last edited Thu Jul 9, 2015, 12:49 PM - Edit history (2)

Edit:

He may yet have a tough time getting the job. It seems one of his legal advisers is caught in a serious investigation over spending excesses in Afghanistan, leading to possible questions over what the General may have known about his subordinate's role.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/20/36-million-afghanistan-waste_n_7346858.html

The inspector general's report recommends Vangjel face disciplinary action. It then goes a step further and connects the years-old issue to a current political question by suggesting the Army also discipline two military officials who the inspector general argues helped prevent the exposure of the massive waste: Maj. Gen. James Richardson, who conducted the 2013 Army investigation that failed to assign blame, and Col. Norman Allen, a legal adviser to the Obama administration's recently announced nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, former top Afghanistan commander Gen. Joseph Dunford.

According to the inspector general, Allen shared portions of Richardson's report with Vangjel -- the commander who made the call to continue building the facility even after officers on the ground deemed it unnecessary -- saying that Dunford had "directed (him) to follow-up directly."

"Colonel Allen may have effectively 'coached' General Vangjel, thereby compromising the integrity of the investigation. Rather than simply asking General Vangjel why he thought it was prudent to approve the [$36 million] building, Colonel Allen appears to have provided him with the answer," the inspector general's report reads.

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