Odierno: 50,000 Troops Needed To Defeat the Islamic State

It will take around 50,000 troops to destroy the Islamic State, according to the Army’s recently retired chief, but they don’t necessarily all have to be American.

That’s the assessment retired Army Gen. Ray Odierno gave Wednesday at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy’s Washington Forum. He added that U.S. troops would have to direct these forces.

Odierno has said ground forces are needed to defeat the extremists, although this appears to be the first time he suggested 50,000 troops would be enough to do the job. In August 2015, in his final news conference as the Army’s chief of staff, he said: “If we find in the next several months we’re not making the progress that we have, we should probably absolutely consider embedding some soldiers and see if that will make a difference. It’s an option we should present to the president when the time is right.”

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