Ash Carter: Trump Takes Credit for ISIS ‘Giving Up’; The Plan ‘Was Laid Out Two Years Ago’

RUSH EXCERPT:

CARTER: "Well, the plan has been -- was laid out two years ago. And has been executed pretty much in the manner and on the schedule that was foreseen then. And, again, the credit goes to, first and foremost, our military for carrying that out. I was always looking for ways to accelerate it. Joe Dunford, the chairman and I were doing that. As we did that, we always got the approval of our president, President Obama at that time, who understood where we were going and wanted to get there also. And I can't speak for the new administration and the new team, but I can well imagine that if my successor, Jim Mattis, had ways of moving things along, that he would have recommended them as well. But the outcome here was one that we knew we had to achieve, as I said two years ago, and the basic plan was to put together an army north of up where your correspondent is, north of Raqqa. Train them, equip them and then bring the awesome might of the American military to bear in enabling them. That took some time, which is why -- but at the same time moving up the Tigris valley to Mosul, which was the other principal city that needed to be taken."