Ex-CIA chief says IS fight should military, political

PanARMENIAN.Net - Ex-CIA Director David Petraeus said that Islamic State militants can only be defeated through a dual military and political approach.

"Industrial-strength" extremists cannot be dealt with "just with force of arms", he said in an interview with the BBC.

During the Iraq war, Petraeus devised the strategy that saw a "surge" in U.S. troop numbers and secured support from Sunni tribesmen against al Qaeda.

Iraq's U.S.-backed army is now battling to retake territory seized by IS.

Gen Petraeus described the group as "a formidable enemy".

"It is really a conventional army that also has elements of an insurgency, and indeed significant terrorist elements as well," he said, according to the BBC.

But when asked to compare IS with its predecessor, al Qaeda in Iraq - which Gen Petraeus was instrumental in defeating - he said the latter "had much greater roots in Iraq and much greater numbers than IS".

The retired general characterized the recent capture by IS of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, as "a strategic loss in the sense that the narrative of IS being on the defensive - of losing - was shown to be somewhat hollow".

"I do think Ramadi will be retaken in a matter of weeks or less," he added. "But this was a big setback. At such a time, one has to look at the strategy, at refinements that need to be made, at efforts that need to be augmented, and I know that's what's going on right now."

After commanding international troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gen Petraeus became head of the CIA but was forced to stand down in 2012, following revelations of an extra-marital affair. Subsequent allegations that he provided classified information to his mistress while he was CIA director led him to plead guilty to one misdemeanor charge. But despite the turbulence of his private life, Gen Petraeus remains one of the heroes of America's controversial military operations of recent years, the BBC notes. He was the architect of the "surge" in Iraq that deployed more U.S. troops, but equally important, got them out of their defended compounds to create security at a local level.

Gen Petraeus acknowledges the difficulties of grappling with the horrors in Syria but insists that the only way forward is to train and equip moderate opposition elements. He says that more such fighters will spring up once the program gets under way.

And he is very cautious about any Iranian role in combating IS. He insists Iran remains a revolutionary power in the region.

"This is a country that has made progress because of chaos. It has both benefited from chaos and fomented chaos to try to achieve regional hegemony," he says.

So he believes that "while there can indeed be some coincidence of interest between the U.S., its coalition allies in the region and Iran in terms of the defeat of IS (...) the over-arching context is one that gives you reason to have considerable caution in how you go forward in the relationship with Iran".