![\"last](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/last-convoy-out-of-Iraq.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nChief Tango sends us a link to an article at The Hill<\/a> by our buddy, Kristina Wong in which she reports that Ashton Carter, the Defense Secretary, told reporters at a Politico event, that the President has told him that he wants ISIS defeated before Obama leaves office so the next president doesn’t have to deal with the problem;<\/p>\n “That’s what he said he wants. That’s what he told me and [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford]. He said, ‘Get this done as soon as possible. I’d like to not leave this to my successor,’ ” Carter said Friday an event hosted by Politico. <\/p>\n He added that Obama called for the process to be accelerated last fall \u2014 about a year after the U.S. first began its counter-ISIS campaign. <\/p>\n The administration now has only nine months left, but Carter said he’s optimistic. <\/p>\n “I’m confident that we’ll do it. And we have an operational plan now,” he said. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n Yeah, that’s all they have to do – want something to happen and it’s done. Of course, the way that they get muddled reports from the Pentagon on the prosecution of the war, the White House may believe that ISIS is defeated long before ISIS believes they’re defeated.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, another American servicemember has been killed during a rocket attack on a base in northern Iraq, according to AFP<\/a>;<\/p>\n The latest fatality came after an indirect fire rocket attack on a base at Makhmur, CNN said, citing a US official and saying that a “small number” of other American troops were wounded in the attack.<\/p>\n It was not exactly clear how many and the Pentagon spokesman declined to give further details.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"