CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait | Defense Secretary Ashton Carter convened an extraordinary war council Monday on Iraq’s doorstep six days after taking office, gathering military and diplomatic leaders to discuss the Obama administration’s oft-criticized strategy for countering the Islamic State.
He left suggesting that the approach is mostly on track.
“The discussion indicated clearly to me that [the Islamic State] is hardly invincible,” Mr. Carter told reporters after six hours of closed-door talks with the officials he dubbed “Team America.”
He gave no indication that he thinks the strategy needs an overhaul.
“Our discussion this afternoon affirmed the seriousness and the complexity of the threat posed by ISIL, especially in an interconnected and networked world,” he said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State. “Lasting defeat of this brutal group can and will be accomplished.”
Mr. Carter said the U.S.-led aerial bombing campaign in Iraq is progressing, and he expressed confidence that the U.S. military is well-suited to carry out a longer-term effort to train and equip an opposition rebel force in Syria. He specified two areas for improvement in the overall strategy: more creative use of social media to counter the Islamic State’s messaging campaign, and getting more out of some coalition member countries, which he did not identify.
Mr. Carter was returning Tuesday to Washington to meet with President Obama.
The Army general commanding the war effort in Iraq and Syria, meanwhile, told reporters that Islamic State fighters are “halted, on the defensive” in Iraq and facing a new counterattack by Iraqi forces in Anbar province to retake a town that the militants seized this month. Lt. Gen. James L. Terry said he is confident that the Iraqi push, dubbed “Lion’s Revenge,” will succeed in retaking the town of al-Baghdadi.
But Gen. Terry said of the Islamic State, “No doubt, they’re adaptive.”
Mr. Carter said he assembled U.S. generals, diplomats and intelligence officials not just to hear the latest on battlefield progress but also to better understand the intellectual underpinnings of Mr. Obama’s counterterrorism strategy, including the ways military force is supposed to combine with political and economic measures to reverse the Islamic State’s gains and eventually defeat the militants.
During a brief photo session as the talks began, Mr. Carter said he needs to better understand the “very complicated” problem of an Islamic militant group “spreading echoes and reflections around the world.” He added: “It is a problem that has an important military dimension, but it’s not a purely military problem — it’s a politico-military problem.”
Seated around a large T-shaped table were about 25 senior officials, including Gen. Lloyd Austin, head of the military’s Central Command; presidential envoys John Allen and Brett McGurk; the commanders of U.S. forces in Europe and Africa; and U.S. ambassadors summoned from Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab nations with a stake in the outcome of the fight against the Islamic State.
“This is Team America,” Mr. Carter said.
The gathering was an unusual way for a Pentagon chief to begin his tenure. Aides said participants were told in advance to leave their usual talking points home and be prepared for a freewheeling discussion.
Among other key participants were Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, and Maj. Gen. Michael Nagata, head of the U.S. program to train and equip a moderate rebel force in Syria. Several of Mr. Carter’s top Pentagon aides also attended.
In remarks to troops at Camp Arifjan before the conference began, Mr. Carter said the key to success against the Islamic State is ensuring that the countries threatened by the group can preserve the gains achieved by the U.S.-led military campaign.
“We will deliver lasting defeat, make no doubt,” he said. “It needs to be a lasting defeat.”
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