Hagel: US Won't 'Contain' ISIS, Unaware of 'Manageable' Comments

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that America’s strategy is not to contain ISIS, but to destroy them, and that he “wasn’t aware” of President Barack Obama’s comments about making ISIS “a manageable problem.”

Hagel stated, “I think the president’s statement, which I did read, and … the vice president’s news conference, was pretty clear, [the strategy is] ‘to degrade and destroy’ the capability of ISIL to come after US interests all over the world, and our allies.”

He also reported that he “wasn’t aware” of Obama’s comments later in the same press conference that ISIS could be shrunk to “a manageable problem” if the international community worked to “isolate” it.  And re-iterated that the U.S.’ strategy towards ISIS is “not contain, it’s exactly what the president said, ‘degrade and destroy.’”

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