Well, someone does, even if it’s not the US military, Pentagon officials warn.
“Can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in Syria? The answer is no,” Dempsey said.
Operating in Syria is tricky, however, because it could essentially make the US military a de facto ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who also wants to see IS destroyed.
Still, it’s clear that IS “will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially at this point a nonexistent border,” Dempsey added. “And that will come when we have a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeating ISIS over time.”
