Next discussion of the progress of defeating are isis in iraq and syria. Well hear about Coalition Forces have made gains in the region and the role that they will play in combatting terrorism. Held by the middle east institute, this is an hour. Good morning everyone. Good afternoon depending on where you are. For the next hour or so ill be talking to major general, Deputy Commander resolve, which is the u. S. Led campaign against isis in iraq, and syria. Todays event is the ninth episode of the defense leadership series. Its a highlevel platform that we traded back in june, of this year. And it is a platform where current and former military in defense leaders from both the United States and the region are able to discuss some of the most important policy issues facing the two sides. We were extremely fortunate to integrate the series on june 10th, with a conversation, frank mckenzie. Since then weve had the honor of hosting some of the most seasoned leaders in the defensive space including michelle, the current director. The current Deputy Commander, who just recently transition into the rule having served earlier as the commander. We also hosted the former u. S. Dp miller. Former commander, mike the god. Oh also the operations chief, duke. They work chalet. And of course, the former Lebanese Armed forces commander or i should say rear admiral. Let me just take this opportunity to think centcom and the leadership for their partnership with us. We are especially honored and proud of working with you. I recognize we need to bring more officials and officers from the region to the show. Believe me its not from a lack of trying. Its not an easy thing to do for all sorts of reasons. But that said, im committed to this endeavor. And will keep trying. Today we have the privilege of having with this major general, kevin cups, eat who holds the position of general commander. A strategy for joint task force resolve. I will be talking to him but the status of the anti isis campaign and iraq and syria. And the future of that effort. Anchored you to check out our guests bio on our website. Let me just introduce him and general kevin was commission to the royals in 1990. Hes hady in europe, but also in afghanistan. He worked for the ministry of defense in london for nato. Two years ago he became the british armys head. Responsible for developing a new army concept which isnt an easy thing to do. General, welcome to the in the is defense leadership series. I recognize that we may be facing some technical issues today. But we will be patient with that. And we recognize also that at some point you may have to remove the videos that we can probably get better quality sound from you. But let me just once again we welcome you, and thank you for. Its a important conversation. For those of you less familiar with aor and sent calm. How does it work to have someone like you serve in command like . Thats great, the rest of the team in the middle institute thank you so much for inviting me. Giving me the opportunity to talk about what has been a successful military campaign, and how we actually made that journey from where we are now, and the opportunities as we reflect on what the opportunities could look like now and in northern syria. We have a deputy, i am actually sat inside the away ours corridors. Theres only a couple of us that touch the iraqi headquarters, its predominantly based in kuwait, its actually made up of 27 different nations. That stake within the coalition of haiti. Within the headquarters itself, one has a u. S. Lieutenant general and the force. Myself as the deputy. The low is a whole mixture of International Offices from various different nations. Each one bringing a unique uptick that together blends eight wonderful way in which we can approach the international challenges. And working with the iraqi forces and getting them to the feet. Its a helpful place to, be insightful, and uncertain as well. All that can blend together, to make for a very challenging position as well. I heard you liked mountaineering and pine skiing. Where did that come from . A lot of my earlier time in the army was spent in germany. The British Military put a greek premium and meddle a, terri not just in operations, high up in altitude. In areas that you are uncomfortable with. So thats really how it started. We pursued with the British Military a semi professional approach to the sports. In particular, alpine skiing. I started to race for the army for a number of seasons until one just gets a little bit too old in the toilet of the skiing. Career noah spent my time as the president of the winter sports. Put in what i know and i provided from the british monetary back into the soldiers. And develop accordantly. So it is a really good opportunity. Lets make a deal. General before we start the conversation. If i sense you sense that im about to ask a question that is pelosi based throw at me a yellow card because i understand that you guys dont do policy . It implements policy coming from the pentagon and state department but i just cant help myself. If you see anything there thats really more of a policy question tell me that theres no unanswered. Absolutely fine. Absolutely fine. Thanks. Let me start this broad question. Six years ago, this organization, isis, controlled land mass roughly the size of britain. Subjugating the lives of eight to 9 million people. But today it lost all of that territory, or at least nearly all of it. And a lot of its resources. Thanks to the campaign of a league general that is a resolve. And of course a lot of the work of the local and regional farmers that have been quite helpful. Lets start with this. Described as the Main Elements of the campaign. You pursued all these years to achieve what you described in beginning as a military success. And to significantly degrade the capabilities of this organization. Yes, thanks. During the twilight of what has been a successful military campaign, and lets reflect that when isis became a sub state, governing almost under 10,000 square kilometers, alongside the iraqis 17 of the nations came together to form a coalition. Arguably the largest collection thats come together since the second world war. A unity of approach to defeat daesh. We can talk later on about how terrorism that is sizes around the globe here Respective National borders. And they are coming together that brought together about 27 nations with various types of military capability but the keep it was and still is is to enable the Iraqi Security apparatus, the peshmerga, the conventional forces down in the south or even the Syrian Democratic force [inaudible] over 120,000 have been trained over the four years and it was that force, the Partner Forces that once took the fight, they are the ones that fought through the streets. They were the one that liberated and dismantled. And the coalition was there to provide that enabling support. The artillery, the air power that was needed, the intelligence, the surveillance and to a degree some of that is provided now. So, you know, we have actually gone past what has been the high intensity part of the conflict and we have dismantled the physical part of daesh. That is where we have defeated them and that is objectively easier to measure. What we have work to do is undermined our finances a narrative. When we talk about that a little later on but whats really changed was two things. One was with last year which sees us go from high intensity to this final chapter of our military campaign and a bizarre early covid as well. The covid pandemic when it hit the middle east, caused a lot of nations because we could not be that close to our iraqi partners during the training to go back home to the host nations. And two things happen. The first of which was realizing that the iraqis actually we are not good enough. They are strong, professional, have the pillory to defeat daesh. We have entered a new part of the campaign from this high intensity into the final chapter or face for as we will call it. And as we hollowed out our force, we started to recalibrate ourselves intellectually from doing the tactical level the training up into mentoring an advisory at the higher operational level. So where i said today, in central baghdad, is i am in a camp that is colocated with the joint Operational Command with and that joint Operational Command deploys we and ends daesh. We sit back and we monitor and we help them in the planning tools needed for them to get off of that final peace. Without forces, well cities operational focus . We still die best equipment to make sure that we [inaudible] can go through modernization program. That allows them to over match daesh. We to fund particular streams off salary to make sure those soldiers as they are going down and risking their lives are appropriately pay. So that has been about five billion over the course of the campaign that has been given in divestments or stipend says we will call it. We have also had to rebalance our force. As covid hit, we realize we are in too many bases that were not needed anymore. So we transition many of those across the Iraqi Service forces. The last one we did was camp taraji which was in Early September of this year. In doing so you have now got the Iraqi Security forces that have the footprint that allows them to be balanced across the country to get after the defeat of daesh. So we have done high intensity, we have recalibrated intellectually for the support that they need and we have rebalance our force to actually support the iraqis and what they need rather than the wants and desires that were needed in phase three. Happy. General, i do not know if you are able to hear me just fine but i think the sound was fine on your end but maybe the video was a little bit freezing. So maybe for the next few minutes we will turn off the video on your end and we will see if that gets any better. Is that ok . Yeah, that is absolutely fine. All right. So i think you said it yourself and this is really no secret. The organization is not defeated, its really on the ropes, i hope at least, militarily speaking. Its capability is severely degraded but not defeated. That of course requires, yes im going to use that word, a government approach, right . It requires, you know, the involvement of much more than centcom but many other elements of Natural Power but just tell us, what kind of threat to this Organization Still pose today . Yeah, that is a good question. So for what i would say is daesh is definitely down but not out. We have dismantled the physical but there are areas. It seems geographically where they can still operate. They do not operate in a joint well lead fashion at all. That they have resorted to life as a criminal. They are in survival mode. That it is all about theft, extortion and kidnapping. They are operating in a rural areas where we are easy enough to be targeted by the Iraqi Security forces. And there is probably for areas that we have of concern. One is river valley with the daesh operating there and obviously trying to exploit the inter Tribal Dynamics and the geography of that area. There is also the disputed territories between differences of baghdad and that gap that changes distance right along of what is known as the kurdish correlation line. And then also that border between iraq and into syria. Now certainly the latitude we work alongside Syrian Democratic forces and the Iraqi Security forces and their leadership level to try anti operations that mutually support each other to try and tie down anyway which daesh could exploit the border. And similarly with the kurdish correlation line is to encourage both in the north and the kurds force in the south have joint operations. To be fair, both parties have actually made huge influence in starting to get after that and i can they squeeze into daesh. It is the fourth area that is probably the biggest concern that is the idea of the detain accounts. Particularly those in northeast syria. Syrian Defense Force has done a fantastic job of administering and containing and running those particular institutions. But its whats happening inside them that oh ar has no mandate for in one volume in. But we do both encourage and provide equipment for the fcf for doing their job and looking after them. When i do fear is without there being an international, political my skirt microscope placed on these locations that the threat of daesh 2. 0 could be realized. You have come under control and you also have the ability to permeate their murderous narrative. As well as also finance and finance networks. There were other organizations that were involved in dismantling those parts but that is the one bit that would be my worry is those two particular institutions. Perfect segue, general. Why dont we try to have you back on video and see if that works a little bit . Okay. Perfect segue because i think this merits a sort of an indepth conversation about this whole issue of resurgence because there has been a good bit of analysis coming out of washington by reasonable seasoned analysts regarding this issue of resurgence. So how to send calm review resurgence . How do you understand it . Do you by the fact that it really is, you know, returning to what it was before . How are you addressing this and how concerned are you about it . You already started, you know, talking about it but tell me a little bit more about this issue . So the issue is a lot of observers would say, well there has been a slight increase in daesh activity and therefore its resurging. Is it resurging in a Cohesive Group that is able to seize territory to try and regain one abilities . No it is not. What it is doing of course is having an allergic reaction to the amount of pressure that has been put on them on a daily basis and every domain, land, air and the narrative by the iraq street forces, and the we stf. That is bound to create a reaction as you push a line in a corner. Royal illuminates more networks and intelligence for the iraqis and our other partners to exploit and work upon. So theres that cause and effect. On one hand when you have that forward leaning Security Apparatus, and it pushes into a chapter action. But it has to be exerted over a period of time because they could become progressively easier to target. They become more geographically fragmented. There are other parts of the that would assist iraq in ensuring that we would actually help ensure the narrative, its arguably just as important if not more important than the physical to maine. We talk about the detainees. Its a big issue that could probably be described as a ticking time bomb. The United States government believes that there is a high impact risk of, at least those back in may, but enough its still an issue today. But high risk of a mass breakout. There are about 20 of them, in northeastern syria. There are 2000 foreign fighters, iraqi syrian fighters. How concerned are you about that . You already started addressing it. This could aid any ridge surgeons that may happen. Whats the capacity of the sdf to really sustain it . Over to you. Thats a fair question. I cant answer for some of the institutions that are outside of the area that we operate in. Certainly the essay, those detainees camps that are administered so well is we are very alive to any potential of breakdown. There couldve been numerous attempts that happened over the months. But were used to the divestment of equipment as part of our campaign, is to provide non lethal apparatus to govern the detention center. As well as cctv cameras. And to upgrade the sanitation, the security within it as well. This way they could feel more comfortable and confident in dealing with. That there are numerous areas where the coalition has created Infrastructure Projects to also aid that. For example, the husk a person is having a extension thats funded by a coalition that will allow the detainees to be counted into areas that would allow them to sort of spread out, and allows easier access by sdf. Weve enhanced the womens prison. They can have their extended families with them. Maybe for the youth rehabilitation center. The two point oh is going to be focused on the children, but the as they were once known as at some of the ig camps. And by actually taking them into this rehabilitation camps. And facilities. Its been able to actually expose them to a alternative to the narrative. That has been a wonderful initiative and were trying to expand that with the sdf in due course. So am i concerned . Its always a worry. Are we doing your best to mitigate it . Yes through the training and divestments to the democratic forces. Did they feel confident in delivering the security thats required . Absolutely. I think we are in a very good place at the moment for the areas that we are deployed in. Copy. I really feel bad that we cant have your video on. You can keep alternating. Leave it up to you general. I dont want to bother you too much. Let me ask you a cup or law questions about the operation, and then reflect more broadly about the campaign. And maybe borderline violating the agreement i have with the terms of policy. Its not a policy question. Its more about the consequences of policy. Weve done a lot to enhance the capabilities of our iraqi partners. Counterterrorism policies. What will happen to those efforts if we do leave or significantly reduce our military footprint in iraq . Trying to tie it back to everything in terms of resurgence, defeat the organization. What would happen if we link to those efforts at least . Ill try the video. Well see how we get on. Thats a fair comment because one is always fearful of a dependency culture of what is on the brink for our culture. When i think we have to be very mindful of is exactly how good those partners are, and how little we do as the and result. The day to day operations are done by the iraqis. We followed up. Youve seen the recent announcements of every particular u. S. Troops going down and down, caused by covid, recalibration of advising that i spoke about earlier. And we sit alongside them. That is that. They take t