POLITICO
by Jeremy Herb
August 21, 2014

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is “beyond anything that we’ve seen” and poses a greater terrorism threat than Al Qaeda, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday. “ISIL is as sophisticated and well-funded as any group that we have seen,” Hagel said in a news conference one day after President Barack Obama lashed out at the militant Islamic group.

“They’re beyond just a terrorist group,” Hagel said. “They marry ideology, sophistication of strategic and tactical military prowess, they are tremendously well-funded. This is beyond anything that we’ve seen. So we must prepare for everything. And the only way you do that is take a cold, steely, hard look at it and get ready.”

Hagel and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey promised Thursday that the U.S. role in eliminating ISIL will remain limited but described the group as a long-term threat that cannot be eradicated through airstrikes alone. ISIL’s momentum has been disrupted by the roughly 90 airstrikes the U.S. military has already undertaken, which stopped the group’s advances toward Erbil and helped Iraqi and Kurdish forces retake the Mosul Dam, Dempsey said.

But he warned that the group has been slowed — not stopped. “This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision, and which will eventually have to be defeated,” Dempsey said. While Hagel dodged questions about whether the U.S. military will need to attack parts of Syria, Dempsey said the organization will ultimately have to be “addressed on both sides of essentially, at this point, a nonexistent border.”…..

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/chuck-hagel-isil-defense-james-foley-110241.html