Former General and Central Intelligence Agency Director David Petraeus (Reuters/Jason Reed)

Defeating ISIS Will Take Years And Require Use Of Ground Forces: David Petraeus -- National Post/Bloomberg

TOKYO — The U.S.-led fight against Islamic jihadists will take years and will need ground forces to succeed, retired Gen. David Petraeus said Friday.



“We’re talking about years, many years in the case of Syria,” he told business executives at a Tokyo hotel. “What we’re doing right now is disrupting. We are gradually chipping away at the strength” of the Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham (ISIS), but gains could not be sustained without ground forces.



“I do believe the Iraqis can be the ground forces that can deal with this over time, but again it will be months and years, not days or weeks.”



His comments came a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi urged U.S. President Barack Obama to make the air strikes “quick and decisive” to deny ISIS the time to lure more fighters to the region.



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My Comment: I suspect that General Petraeus is correct .... it will take years to defeat the Islamic State. But does the West have the stomach to spend billions of more dollars and the loss of even more lives .... I doubt it.