While the United States is committed to defeating the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) and other terrorist groups, General Martin Dempsy, current chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said eventually ISIS will collapse on its own.
In a pre-taped interview that aired on
"Fox News Sunday," Dempsey said he has long maintained that a group that embraces radical ideology has to maintain momentum to succeed.
The United States has destroyed a lot of their equipment and reversed some of their territorial gains and has had an impact on their leadership and command and control, Dempsey said, but added, "What will eventually cause the defeat of ISIL is that it will collapse under its own contradictions, frankly. When the populations in which it tries to maneuver realize that that ideology is not to their future benefit."
The U.S. military is designed to "play an away game against its adversaries," Dempsey told host Chris Wallace. "We try to keep pressure on that network with the suite of capabilities that we have."
That includes intelligence, building partners and direct action.
He admitted that the United States needs to do more, but added, "that's not to imply that we're not doing enough."
"ISIL is inspiring groups that already exist to re-brand themselves, but in re-branding themselves into a more radical ideology," Dempsey said. "That’s what makes it dangerous."
America has nine lines of effort in its fight against terror, including counter-financing, counter-foreign fighters, counter-messaging and reconstruction, he said. There are only three military lines of effort, but they tend to get all the attention, he said.
"But I will say the other lines of effort may be more important than the military lines of effort."
On the Iraq strategy, Dempsey said, "It's the government of Iraq's strategy enabled by us." He said it will take several months to marshal all the different resources needed, and he isn't sure if ground forces will be needed. If they are, he said, he will make that recommendation to President Barack Obama.
He also said Syria cannot be won with airstrikes alone. But the United States faces serious questions in its effort to recruit Syrians to fight ISIS and the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in that country's three-way civil war.
With a mission change in Afghanistan, Dempsey said he still expects to see pockets of areas change hands from time to time, "because that's the history of the country."
He said the joint chiefs chairman "tends to be rather cautious and careful, and he also tends to be a little paranoid. Terrorism can ebb and flow. It may not be there now, and it could be there tomorrow. … Terrorism flows where instability lurks."
Asked about the claims of two former Defense secretaries, Leon Panetta and Robert Gates, that Obama micromanages military operations, Dempsey said, "It's the wrong metric."
Instead, he said, people should focus on whether he, as joint chiefs chairman, has access and whether his advice influences decisions. He said neither of those issues have ever been a problem.
On Hagel's issues with closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Dempsey said he supports the president.
"It does create a psychological scar on our national values. Whether it should or not, it does, he said.
But he admitted some of the terrorist detainees held there never should be released.
Wallace asked how that would work out since many members of Congress don't want the detainees brought onto U.S. soil.
"There’s going to be dozens of these individuals that have to be detained, and our elected officials need to find a way to detain them," Dempsey said.
Turning to Iran, Dempsey said that if diplomacy fails and they develop nuclear weapons, the United States has been clear that is "an unacceptable risk" to America and the region. If asked, he said, we would eliminate — or in his words, "delay" — Iran's nuclear program.
On the cyber front, Dempsey said the United States does not hold the advantage as it does in other military areas.
"We don't have an advantage. It's a level playing field. And that makes this chairman very uncomfortable," he said.
He said it is possible that funding for the military could be cut so much that it would no longer be possible to adequately defend the country. If sequestration takes effect in 2016, he said, the military will have to change its strategy.
"We are still the most powerful nation in the world by any measure. Likely to remain so, unless we talk ourselves out of it and legislate ourselves out of it with things like the Budget Control Act," Dempsey said. But he said "human capital" will get the country out of its current situation.
"We're going to have to think our way through the future, not bludgeon our way through it," he said.
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