The CBS Evening News reported Thursday on an elite group of U.S. combat veterans who plan to return to Iraq to roll back the Islamic State (IS).
CBS News correspondent Chip Reid interviewed U.S. Army veteran Charlie Keaton, who served two tours of duty in Iraq as a frontline medic. Keaton decided to return to Iraq when he saw IS capturing territory he fought for years before.
"I just cannot believe that I saw them driving down the streets, flying their flags in a city that American soldiers died to secure," Keaton told CBS News. "I don't even know the words to describe that."
Keaton joined a group called Veterans Against ISIS which plans to join Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to fight IS. According to the group's website, the roughly two dozen veterans plan "to assist locals in security, medical supplies, medical aid, and training."
Keaton told Reid that his group is necessary because the U.S. withdrew from Iraq in 2011.
"I do believe we left too soon," Keaton said. "We left a power vacuum, and I think that has caused things to be worse for the people."
