Jen Psaki: Military Might Will Not End the War Against ISIS

Thursday on CNN’s “New Day,” White House communications director Jen Psaki said military might will not end the war against ISIS.

Psaki said “The fact is that we have had a strategy in place for over a year now to take on the threat of ISIL. The president of the United States has been leading a coalition of 65 countries. But this isn’t just about military might. This is also about taking on and destroying their materials, whether that is men or whether that is supplies they have. And that is something we’ve been working closely with counterparts, and enabling partners, training, equipping we have increased in recent days. And we also need to work towards a political solution. We need to end the safe haven ISIL has if we want to make our country and the world safer.”

Host Alisyn Camerota asked, “Why wouldn’t military might work? It stamped out the ideology of Nazism. Now that ISIS has crossed China by executing one of their hostages, why wouldn’t the U.S. and China and Russia and France and Europe and military might stamp this out?”

Psaki replied, “ISIL’s strength and ISIL’s approach is different than what we’ve seen from terrorist organizations in the past. They are more diffuse, using social media. They are spread out in different parts of the world. So it is not just military might. It is also about taking on, working with partners like Turkey to close off their border and make sure people are not crossing, intending to do harm. It is also about taking out their supplies and making sure they don’t have the financing and equipment to do harm. It’s also also about going after them on social media. Taking one singular approach, even though the rhetoric may make people feel good is not going to end the conflict. It is not going to end the threat of ISIL. That is why we need a comprehensive approach and that is why we’re working with our partners around the world to do.”

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