Waltz: If True, Death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi ‘Could Accelerate the Unraveling of ISIS as State’

EXCERPT:

WALTZ: "Yeah, that’s right, Neil. And -- and if this is true, and I take this as a big if, and Russian reporting with a big grain of salt, but if it is true, this could accelerate the unraveling of ISIS as a state. You know right now Raqqa, its capital, is under pressure. The initiative -- the offensive there has just begun and in Iraq, Mosul is almost --has almost been taken by Iraqi forces supported by the U.S., but it would not mean the end of ISIS as a movement. Look, we have to keep our pressure, a lot of pressure on this leadership. They’re fully radicalized. They’re not going to come to the table. They have to be taken off the battlefield by military means. If they are more afraid of whether they’re going to make it through the night alive, they don’t have time to plot and plan future attacks. But my fear, and what I worry about are Arab, young Arab, five, six, seven yearly children and affecting their hearts and minds. We have to have a longer term strategy that deals with Islamic extremism."