Doublespeak is in full effect. Is not a war but a continuing flowing contingency reaction requiring kinetic action and a cohesive coalition of willing partners.
After weeks of airstrikes that have been tactically effective but oriented toward defense, the United States military is preparing to go on offense against Islamic State militants, the Pentagon said Friday.
“I think you can expect we are going to be more aggressive going forward,” Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters Friday.[…]
But now the U.S. military is prepared to greatly expand its operations to carry out a policy aimed at destruction of the group, as announced Wednesday by President Barack Obama in a nationally televised speech.
“Our role is to degrade their capabilities, which we are continuing to do, to support indigenous forces in Iraq and hopefully in Syria, to take the fight to them,” Kirby said.[…]
“It cannot be done simply militarily,” he said. “This is not an army, this is a terrorist group.”
Overcoming ISIL in Iraq will require help from regional partners as well as a “responsive political process” in Iraq, he said — one able to reduce the attraction of the Islamic State to Sunnis alienated by the Shia-dominated government in Baghdad.
After the previous collapse of Iraqi units in the face of insurgent fighters, the army has rallied, Kirby said.
“They have been doing well — not perfectly — but they’ve been doing well,” Kirby said, holding Baghdad and retaking some land to the north, as well as retaking the Mosul dam with Kurdish forces.
The United States is at war with the Islamic State much as it is with al-Qaida affiliates worldwide, but it is not going to grow to the magnitude of recent wars, Kirby said.
“This not going to be the Iraq war,” he said. “This is a counterterrorism campaign against ISIL for which there is a military component to which we will contribute.”