Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey told the truth when he said Friday that the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, would not be defeated without attacking the terrorist group in Syria, LIGNET Chief Analyst Fred Fleitz on Monday told
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."
Dempsey appeared to backtrack his statement on Monday when he indicated he would have to determine whether ISIS posed a direct threat to the United States before he would recommend attacks in Syria, according to
Fox News.
"What Gen. Dempsey said is really extraordinary. He made the cardinal sin last week, I'm afraid, of telling the truth, the unwelcome truth, that we're not going to defeat ISIS unless we attack them in Syria," Fleitz said.
Fleitz said that airstrikes alone in Syria would not defeat ISIS, but that it would require sending "U.S. special operation forces into northern Syria to help take out their locations."
"Knocking out ISIS is going to be complicated, and it's going to involve a massive air campaign if we're serious about it, both in Iraq and Syria. And we may have to have some boots on the ground in northern Syria," he said.
LIGNET analyst Lisa Ruth told "America's Forum" on Monday that she agreed it would require "some kind of troops on the ground, coordinated, of course, with intelligence" in Syria to defeat ISIS, adding that the United States could not rely on airstrikes alone.
Fleitz said the administration of President Barack Obama has been "incredibly neglectful of what's been going on in Iraq after we pulled our troops out in 2011."
He said the president's determination to do "nothing about this situation in Syria" caused a "power vacuum" that enabled ISIS to gain strength.