Obama expects long-term campaign against ISIS

U.S. President Barack Obama told the press that sustained efforts will be needed in order to bring down ISIS. Obama said it seems like it will be a “long-term campaign”, because of the influx of new fighters joining ISIS from all over the world. Barack Obama declared: “There will be days of progress and there are going to be periods of setback”. Defense officials from over 22 countries fighting against the Islamic State have met for an entire day to talk about ways to facilitate security against ISIS. Also, they discussed current military operations and plans for future ones. Obama believes a full coalition will be needed in order to properly handle this threat. He declared: “We are going to have to pay attention to how all the countries in the region begin to cooperate in rooting out this cancer and we are going to have to continue on delivering the humanitarian assistance of all the populations that have been affected”. Obama encourages nations fighting against ISIS to stay strong together and expect the operations to last for a longer period of time.

The gathering held on Tuesday was chaired by General Martin Dempsey, U.S chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Lloyd Austin, the commanding general of the U.S. Central Command, responsible for most operations held in Syria and Iraq. U.S. President Barack Obama was able to attend only during the second part of the day, outside Washington, DC at Joint Base Andrews. Military officials from Iraq were also expected to attend the meeting. However, members from the Syrian opposition were not expected, because the meeting was held only for “sovereign nations”. The discussions are classified, however topics like the current operations, arming and the training of Syrian opposition forces were supposed to be covered.

The official spokesperson for the coalition defense chiefs declared: “This meeting is to share our vision, discuss coordination and our common understanding of the way ahead”. The attending members are not policy-makers, which means that they cannot decide any major modifications regarding the mission strategy. This would require the involvement of governments.  This meeting is the fourth one, held in order to gather coalition partners. However, it is the largest gathering held until now. Other meetings have been held in Paris, Bonn and Jordan.