Joint Chiefs nominee says he will assess strategy against IS

The Marine general nominated to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the US and its coalition partners are making moderate progress in the fight against the Islamic State extremist group but that the strategy should be re-evaluated if efforts to improve governance and build reliable local ground forces stall.

Gen. Joseph Dunford says that if he is confirmed by the Senate he also wants to assess whether the US should focus more on the Islamic State group’s “shifting geographic reach” and confront the militants where they are now and where they are most likely to go in the future.

A hearing on the nomination of Dunford, the commandant of the Marine Corps, is slated for Thursday before the Senate Armed Services Committee. His written answers to a broad range of national security questions posed by the committee were obtained by The Associated Press.

The 75-page questionnaire included a number of queries about whether the White House strategy is working in the battle against the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. A number of senators, including Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the panel chairman, voiced sharp criticism during a hearing earlier this week, as they grilled Defense Secretary Ash Carter and the current Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey, on the status of the fight.

During the hearing, Carter acknowledged that the US has only 60 trainees in a program to prepare and arm thousands of moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against IS militants. That topic is sure to come up Thursday, as lawmakers press Dunford for answers on how more progress can be made.

— AP