Jack Keane on ISIS: ‘The So-Called Caliphate Is Completely Gone Now’

EXCERPT:

KEANE: "You’re right. This is the last stronghold that ISIS has, it's on the Syrian-Iraqi border. They had about 2,000 fighters there. We have been at this now for a number of weeks. The fighting has been fierce. They broke the stronghold during the hours of darkness this morning. A lot of those fighters were killed. Some were captured. Some obviously escaped. So, where are we now with ISIS? ISIS no longer holds any ground in eastern Syria. They still have the capability to conduct terrorist attacks. They have done some of that in the northern and eastern part of Syria, as they have done in Iraq. But the so-called caliphate is completely gone now. That’s good news. That’s where we stand with ISIS. But here's the real issue in front of us, what we have to keep in the rear view mirror is what happened in Iraq. In Iraq we did the same thing. We defeated Al Qaeda, the Sunni based insurgency, George Bush did that, 2007 and 2008. Barack Obama came in and pulled the forces out. We had won the war but we lost the piece because we didn’t stay there to ensure that they would not reemerge. You don’t have to stay there with all of the forces you need to defeat them but you have to have some forces there. He pulled it all out and we got ISIS. What we have to do now is keep modest amount of force there, Dana. We only have 2,500 there now. That’s very modest to make certain ISIS doesn’t reemerge."