SecDef Reveals ‘Secret Sauce’ To Defeating ISIS

07.24.2015 | Surge Wire |

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the U.S. seeks a lasting victory against Islamic State and divulged the “secret sauce” to making it happen in Irbil Friday.

“We’re trying to get a defeat that sticks,” The Associated Press reported Carter as saying during a tour of the Kurdish region Friday. “And that can be delivered only by the people that live here,” adding, “that’s the secret sauce.”

After speaking with Iraqi Kurdish leaders, Carter told U.S. troops that the campaign seeks to train Iraqi forces that imitate the success of the Kurdish force, known as the peshmerga.

Despite Carter’s praise for the peshmerga, the U.S. continues to funnel supplies through Baghdad rather than directly arming the Kurds. Republican lawmakers have called for the U.S. to change its policy, but the Obama administration insists Iraq’s sovereignty should be respected by dealing with the central government. (RELATED: Krauthammer: Forget Iraqi Gov’t And Support America’s Real Ally Against ISIS)

About 3,000 U.S.-trained, Iraqi troops are preparing to retake Ramadi, the provincial capital city taken by Islamic State in May, The Washington Post reports. Currently, about 3,500 U.S. military personnel are training Iraqi troops.

Carter made a surprise stop in Baghdad during his Middle East trip, visiting Jordan, Israel and Saudi Arabia. While in Iraq, Carter met with Kurdish regional government president, Masoud Barzani. Iraq’s Kurdish community controls a semi-autonomous region in the north and have successfully prevented Islamic State from capturing the territory.

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