The Pentagon took the unclassified email network used by chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey as well as hundreds of military and civilian personnel offline over the weekend, citing suspicious activity.
President Obama’s strategy against the Islamic State terror group came under harsh criticism from senators on Tuesday who said the United States is losing the war by not doing more to attack the group.
On the fall of Ramadi, Ash Carter, the U.S. secretary of defense, had this to say on CNN: "What apparently happened was that the Iraqi forces just showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered. In fact, they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and yet they failed to fight." A few days earlier, Martin Dempsey, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made a similar point to a group of reporters in Brussels: "The ISF was not driven out of Ramadi. They drove out of Ramadi."
These remarks constitute the latest evolution of administration talking points on our failing campaign against the Islamic State.
It is not every general who can find himself praised at the website of the Weekly Standard and by President Obama himself on the same day. But a defining trait of Joseph Dunford, nominated this week to replace Martin Dempsey as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the universality of the respect that he commands. I have never heard a credible source say a bad word about the man. Come to think of it, I have never heard an untrustworthy source speak ill of him.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey has apologized for offending the mother of a fallen Navy Seal. General Dempsey expressed his regrets to Debbie Lee, who lost her son Marc to fighting in Ramadi in 2006, after she penned a letter criticizing his comments on the Iraqi town. The apology was delivered to Ms. Lee in the form of a letter on Monday.
The mother of the first Navy Seal killed in Iraq has written an open letter to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff complaining about his recent comments dismissing the importance of Ramadi. In the letter Debbie Lee, who lost her son Marc to fighting in Ramadi in 2006, describes how General Martin Dempsey's claim that the city is "not symbolic in any way" made her feel. Dempsey's comments and Lee's letter come as the Islamic State is on the verge of capturing the city.
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