WASHINGTON – The former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency is convinced that force alone is not the key to a U.S. strategy for defeating Islamic State militants in the Middle East or winning the "war of ideas" with extremism worldwide.
"There are sufficient numbers of believers in their ideas, and so we can kill all day long, but until we understand why there are sufficient numbers of believers globally," the group will not be defeated, said Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. "The strategic fight against this idea is something we need to do something about."
Flynn made the remarks Wednesday, hours before President Obama was expected to announce his guidance for confronting the extremist group that has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria.
Flynn has been the DIA director since 2012. He announced in April he would step down and retire amid an internal fight over his plans to remake the agency.
He was addressing the annual Maneuver Conference at Fort Benning, in Columbus, Georgia, when he received a question from an audience member about what the president should say about the Islamic State.
"What this audience wants is, 'kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out, get the t-shirt, go down to Ranger Joe's [a local military clothing store]," Flynn quipped to the largely uniformed audience. "I don't know what he's going to say, but I know what I see."
As it confronts the Islamic State, the U.S. must assume a leadership role, assessing the military capabilities of neighboring states and nations in the region, to organize into a fighting coalition, Flynn said.
"There are effective capabilities in that region, but we have to bring trust," he said of the U.S.. "They want U.S. leadership there to help them organize and know what to do from a military perspective."
Earlier in his remarks, Flynn said that beyond the Islamic State, the U.S. is losing initiative in the "war of ideas" with Islamic extremism, which is spreading rapidly worldwide, particularly in South Asia and Africa.
"ISIS is only a part of the problem," he said. "We are in a war of ideas here, and it is not about Islamism and Christianity, it's about moderation and contributors against evil."
In the information war, radical extremism, "has the initiative right now," he said.
"The number of magazines the al-Qaida crowd has created, they have an entire industry for it today; it's amazing," Flynn said.
Flynn stressed the importance of the Army as the "foundation of our defense, period," but also the need for joint and interagency coalitions.
"At the end of the day, you've got to have this strong foundation, it's got to be capable, it's got to be ready, it's got to be resourced," he said of the Army. "It's not today. Let's not kid ourselves."
He dismissed reports of tension between al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups, who are unified in their goal to grow. "There's no tension." he said. "They hate us equally. It's expansion."
Whether the various groups are working together, what their reach is, what their goals are, the intelligence community is watching closely, he said. However, it's not always clear who everyone is.
"The guy who is the spokesperson on this latest [al-Qaeda leader Ayman] Zawahiri social media missive [about South Asia] is a guy we have never heard of," Flynn said. ■
Joe Gould was the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense News, covering the intersection of national security policy, politics and the defense industry. He had previously served as Congress reporter.
