“I think that’s an option we should present to the president”, said General Raymond Odierno, who retires as Army chief of staff August 14.
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Odierno responded with a discourse on the unintended consequences of military action in the context of the Middle East. Pressed on whether he disagreed with Trump, he said, “I do, I do”. “They’ll tell you there were nuclear weapons”.
Reports from the region and from U.S. Central Command indicate that Iraqi security forces are making final preparations for an assault to retake the Anbar province capital of Ramadi.
“I believe Russian Federation is the most risky”, he said at a Pentagon briefing.
If Iraqi forces aren’t making good progress against Islamic State militants in the next several months, the U.S. should consider embedding American troops with the Iraqis, the Army’s retiring top general said Wednesday.
He added that might mean breaking up Iraq and Syria. “We had promised that we would respect their sovereignty, and so I think based on that, that was always our plan”.
Standing before a podium raised to accommodate his 6-foot, 6-inch frame, the general said the solution to sectarian rivalry in the wartorn nation might be an Iraq that “might not look like it did in the past”.
When U.S soldiers were in Iraq during the last decade, it “allowed us to be honest brokers” between different sects, Odierno said.
“They’ve not made any progress since we started airstrikes”, he maintained, Stars and Stripes reports.
“We could probably go in there with a certain amount of American force and… defeat ISIL”.
“For me it is about altering the dynamics, the political dynamics, the financial dynamics, and it has to be carried out by these in the area”, he stated. “And we must be aware of that, and we must assume that some of the money they get if the sanctions are lifted will be used to continue some of this activity”, he said.
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Asked if he saw any possibility of reconciliation between the two, Odierno said “It’s becoming more hard by the day” and pointed to a future in which “Iraq might not look like it did in the past”. “It’s important for us to support that by training and trying to develop their capabilities and capacity….” And we have to keep working, because a true deterrent is one where people are anxious that if they do conduct operations, there will be some level of response.
