The United States must have a policy of "sustained presence" in order to confront Islamic extremism abroad, former CIA director and retired Gen. David Petraeus told CBS News and Intelligence Matters on Wednesday.
"This is a generational struggle at the least," said Petraeus, who led coalition forces in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 and in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011. "I understand fully why presidents want to end wars rather than to start them, why they want to get out of wars and do nation-building at home. But we do have to stay with this. We need a sustained presence, a sustained commitment."
Petraeus also stressed four additional major points needed to create an effective strategic approach to combatting Islamic extremism, some of which are in marked contrast to recent policy decisions made by the Trump administration, which has started a troop withdrawal process from Syria and Afghanistan that some have criticized as premature.
Petraues emphasized that the U.S. must do something to make sure there are not ungoverned spaces in the Muslim world that will be exploited by Islamist extremists,"and that the American military must take the lead in these efforts", because "Our capabilities are so vastly greater than all of our allies put together."
The general also said that a “comprehensive approach” is needed, and not just fighting terrorists, in order to counter extremism, which only stresses the importance of a sustained commitment.
Petraeus said the U.S. had already "figured out" from its experiences in Iraq and Syria, how to lessen its own long-term costs while enabling host countries to step up to take on most of the burden of rebuilding and fighting on the front lines.
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