General Dunford: Americans Should Be Proud of Role U.S. Troops Play in Iraq, Syria

Jim Garamone at the DoD News offers the below report:

WASHINGTON, March 12, 2017 — Indigenous Iraqi and Syrian forces have made tremendous progress taking the fight to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and Americans should be very proud of the role played in the effort by a small number of U.S. troops, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during an interview.

When Marine Corps Gen. Joe Dunford took over as chairman in October 2015, ISIS had taken vast portions of Iraq and Syria and sought to establish a caliphate. The counter-ISIS strategy he inherited sought to train local forces to combat the terror organization.

This meant small numbers of American and coalition troops would work with Iraqi and vetted Syrian forces. Coalition air assets, special operators and artillery units would support the campaign.

“The Iraqis have to be very proud of their forces,” Dunford said. “But I think we have to be very proud of the coalition, and what U.S. forces have accomplished.”

Iraqi forces pushed back ISIS in Ramadi and Beiji and are now pushing into western Mosul -- the largest city taken by ISIS. The strategy is working, the chairman said, and it’s because young American service members are doing the hard work every day to make it happen.

“If you think of the relatively small number of Americans that had deployed to Iraq over the past 18 to 24 months,” he said, “… if you think about how hard they had to work in conjunction with Iraqi security forces to make sure we learned the lessons from Ramadi and Anbar province … and applied those lessons with the right capabilities in Mosul; I’ll just tell you I am proud of the force that has done that.”

The Task Ahead

There still remains much to do in Iraq, the general said, and he is taking nothing for granted.

In Syria, indigenous forces are isolating Raqqa and pushing back well dug-in ISIS forces on all fronts. There, the progress has been dependent on an even smaller number of Americans who worked to recruit, train and strengthen counter-ISIS forces.

“We sent those guys into an incredibly complex environment,” Dunford said. “We told them to go in collect intelligence, develop relationships, vet people and identify people willing to take the fight to the enemy, train those people, equip those people, support those people, and win.”

And those special operations forces and U.S. Air Force personnel did it -- day after day, little by little, and under extreme circumstances, the chairman said.

“The fact that we are now talking about divergent political challenges, the fact that we are now addressing questions of what happens after Mosul or Raqqa, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it is a reflection of the members of the joint force that have actually enabled the indigenous force to take the fight to the enemy,” Dunford said. “Now we have the political opportunities that we didn’t have two years ago to establish the framework for long-term peace and stability, and we owe it to them.”

Note: In the above U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Paul Sale Iraqi soldiers enrolled in the Iraqi ranger course conduct a road march under the supervision of U.S. soldiers with 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment at Camp Taji, Iraq, March 7, 2016. The Iraqi ranger course is an advanced infantry fighting school established to help train special operations soldiers for the Iraqi Army. 

Africom Campaign Plan Targets Terror Groups

Jim Garamone at DoD News offers the below piece:

STUTTGART, Germany, Jan. 5, 2016 — In the face of growing threats from the African continent, U.S. Africa Command has spelled out its theater campaign plan, officials said here yesterday.

The plan is built upon the foundation of the strategy promulgated last year by Africom commander Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez, officials speaking on background told reporters traveling with Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Yesterday, the chairman visited Africom’s headquarters at Kelly Barracks here.

Five-Year Plan

Officials said Africom’s campaign blueprint is a five-year plan with five lines of effort.
The first is neutralizing the terror group al-Shabab in Somalia, officials said, and transitioning the effort to the African Union Mission in Somalia, known as AMISOM.

The second line of effort centers around the failed state of Libya, officials said, adding that the effort focuses on containing the instability in the country.

Officials said the third line of effort is to contain Boko Haram in West Africa.

Fourth, officials said, Africom will focus on disrupting illicit activity in the Gulf of Guinea and in Central Africa.

Fifth, the command looks to build African partners’ peacekeeping and disaster assistance capabilities, officials said.

This is a large job for a small command, an Africom official said. “The only permanent location we have is Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti,” he said. “Everything else is a very light footprint.”

The command does have cooperative security and contingency locations across the continent, officials said, noting these are essentially “cold bases” that would only be used in the event of an emergency.

In West Africa, Dakar, Senegal, is one of the cooperative security locations and U.S. forces used it during the Ebola crisis last year, officials said.

Officials said the bases also allow the command to protect American lives and property in the high-risk, high-threat posts. There are 15 of those posts in Africa, officials said.

Assisting Somalia

The theater campaign plan starts with neutralizing al-Shabab, officials said. U.S. forces have helped to train, equip and supply AMISOM forces that have played a central role in bringing stability to Somalia, officials said.

“Al-Shabab has been pushed out of most of the major population centers and is only a power in the Juba River Valley,” an official said. However, the official added, al-Shabab “is not a spent force” and it remains a threat -- particularly in terms of targeted attacks against neighboring AMISOM contributors.

Africom continues to monitor the al-Shabab threats to Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda in particular, officials said.

“The emerging issue we’ve seen in al-Shabab over the past six months is the movement at the lower levels of individuals toward [the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant],” an official said. “Pro-ISIL sentiment is increasing in Somalia and we’ve seen some efforts by al-Shabab leaders to strike down these efforts. Al-Shabab leaders remain firmly allied to al-Qaida.”

ISIL ‘Brand’ Makes Gains

Officials said this is an indication of the power of the ISIL “brand” in the extremist world. ISIL, especially after its success in Iraq and Syria, is viewed by extremists as a winning team, while al-Qaida is viewed as having waning operational capabilities. Al-Shabab has been manhandled by the AMISOM troops and the mid-level and lower extremists see ISIL as its savior, officials said.
Core-ISIL has not accepted the al-Shabab splinters as members of the caliphate, officials said.

“From our viewpoint, ISIL probably has very strict criteria for what groups they want to let into the fold,” the official said. “[They] want to make sure the groups coming in can sustain themselves, that they have a plan and have an ability to move.”

The Islamic State affiliates in Libya and Boko Haram in Nigeria have been connected with the extremists in Syria and Iraq for a number of years, the officials said. Boko Haram “officially” joined the terror network last year, officials said.

“Since then, what we’ve seen is an enhancement of Boko Haram’s propaganda and messaging efforts,” an official said. “That has been the most apparent result of the ISIL-Boko Haram ties. Their videos are more professional and tighter. They speak like an ISIL affiliate.”

But there has not been a significant shift of resources, people or even tactics, techniques and procedures to Boko Haram, officials said. The Nigerian-based terror group “is a self-sustaining entity,” an official said.

“We would expect that enhanced affiliation in the Horn of Africa would probably follow the same path,” the official said. “We would see improved propaganda and messaging, but not a shift of resources.”

ISIL Gets Battered

Terrorists in East Africa need material and resources from ISIL, but they are not going to get it, officials said. Core ISIL is hurting itself -- the Islamic State has lost Beiji and Ramadi in Iraq, it is under assault from the Kurdish peshmerga and the Syrian anti-ISIL coalition is making progress, officials said.

The coalition oil campaign is also having an effect on ISIL’s source of wealth, officials said.
Strengthening the AMISOM force and its capabilities will also serve to strengthen the Somalian government, officials said.

Containing Boko Haram is another factor, officials said, noting that Africom is working with local partners -- including Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger -- to contain the terror group. French and British officials are also working with local allies and the command, the officials said.

Challenge in Libya

Libya is a challenge, officials said, noting “increasing bifurcation between moderates and hardliners.” The weak central government allows the space for ISIL to build a safe haven that acts as a nexus for terrorist operations in northern Libya, officials said. This has quickly become more than a simple problem within Libya, as the group has launched attacks in neighboring Tunisia, officials said. Africom has also seen some foreign fighters going into ISIL in Libya, officials said.

Africom is looking to contain ISIL in Libya and degrade it, said officials, who estimate there are roughly 3,500 ISIL terrorists in Libya.

Note: In the above DoD photo by Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Dominique A. Pineirod U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., right, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets with U.S. Army Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander, U.S. Africa Command, at Africom headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany on January 4, 2016.

Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff Marine General Dunford Discusses Implications of Current Security Environment

Jim Garamone a the DoD News offers the below piece:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2015 — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed his short-term priority – defeating the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – and provided insight into his long-term goals during a talk at the Center for a New American Security here today.

Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. spoke about the security environment and its implications on the force of the future and also spoke about joint force organization.

Current trends indicate any conflict in the future will be transregional, multidomain and multifunctional, the chairman said.

“When I look at information operations, cyber capabilities, space and counter-space capabilities, ballistic missile technology – they have all affected the character of the modern battlefield,” the general said. “And we see such capabilities fielded by both state and nonstate actors.”

The North Korean Challenge

An example of the changes these technologies have wrought is North Korea, Dunford said, noting that in the past, military planners believed any conflict would be confined to the Korean Peninsula. “But as North Korea developed ballistic missile technology, that obviously affected other regional actors, such as Japan,” he said.

Today, with ICBMs, cyber, information operations and more, “it’s pretty hard to see how even a conflict on the peninsula would be anything but transregional, multidomain and multifunctional,” the chairman said.

Current planning, organizational constructs and command and control set-ups “is not optimized for that fight,” he added.

U.S. military planning is done regionally and commanders rely on cooperation and collaboration, the chairman said. “It may surprise you to know this, but the lowest level of integration in the Department of Defense really is the secretary of defense,” he said. “That’s an issue that’s on the top of my inbox. That’s an issue that I am taking a look at hard.”

No Slowing Down

Underlying everything are the people of the U.S. military, the chairman said, noting that he returned from a trip last week in which he visited with service members in U.S. European Command, U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Central Command. “I saw a large number of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, and they are in great spirits. … The closer I got to the fight, the more spirited they were. They are focused and proud about what they are doing,” he said. “I don’t take that for granted. The one thing I am mindful of as I come into the job is that we have been running pretty hard for a long period of time.”

The challenges of the world mean they won’t get a rest soon, Dunford said.

“I told them I can’t see a time where that dynamic is going to change,” he explained. “If our requirements continue to be what I believe they will be, and the force structure stays about what it is today, … we are going to be running hard for some time to come.”

Measuring Joint Readiness

The general said he is looking at new ways to measure joint readiness, and that people should expect a new way of looking at the concept after the first of the year.

“It isn’t just the readiness of our individual units and the parts and pieces,” he said. “It’s making sure we have the right inventory, and also making sure on a day-to-day basis we are postured to respond in a timely manner.”

The fight against violent extremism is a transregional conflict, the chairman said. Still, he added, the Defense Department’s portion of the nine lines of effort are focused on destroying core ISIL in Syria and Iraq, and the U.S. military does this by striking ISIL leaders and fighters. “The second critical element is to develop and support effective partners on the ground to seize and secure ISIL-held terrain,” he said.

Dunford came to the venue straight from a meeting with President Barack Obama and the rest of the National Security Council at the Pentagon. “I want to make it clear that within the framework of international and domestic law, our policies and our end state, I don’t personally feel at all inhibited in terms of making recommendations to the president,” he said. “And we will continue to do that.”
Syria, he said, is the bigger challenge, because there is no partner on the ground. The Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga provide allies to take and control terrain inside Iraq. Dunford did say he understands how much more needs to be done, but that he is encouraged by operations against ISIL.

Concerns Over State Actors

However, the chairman said, the threat from extremists, while pressing, is not the only security challenge. The capabilities and behaviors of four state actors– Russia, China, Iran and North Korea – must inform U.S. contingency plans, he said.

“Despite its declining population and shrinking economy, Russia has made a significant investment in its military capabilities,” the chairman said. Russia has fielded new ICBMs, aircraft, new submarines, tanks and air defense systems. The nation is also expanding capabilities in space and cyberspace. As you look at Russian capability, you have to look at it in the context of what they have done in Crimea, Ukraine and Syria.”

Dunford then turned to China, saying the emphasis is to cooperate with the rising giant. “We also – and we get paid to do that – watch closely the developments in their military capabilities and their behavior in the South China Sea,” he said.

Iran and North Korea are exporters of instability who continue to look for new ways to threaten neighbors, the chairman said.

All of these challenges have implications for the future joint force, he said, and the first is foundational.

“We need a balanced inventory of joint capabilities that’s going to allow us to deter and defeat potential adversaries across the range of military operations,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury to have a choice between a force that can fight the current fight against violent extremism and one that can deal with the full range of challenges.”

The second implication is to define how to use the military instrument of power in the “gray zone” of cyberspace, he said.

“I believe we need to develop more effective methods to deal with challenges like Russia’s ‘little green men’ or Iranian malign influence,” he said. “Our traditional approach – where we view things either as at peace or at war – may not be the case for our adversaries.”


On cyber, Dunford called for more offensive cyber capabilities and cyber deterrence.