Matthew 24:10,11 Then he said to them: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
A report from a former vice chief of staff for the Army regarding ISIS that was mostly negative had one bright spot from a military standpoint: the top chemical weapons expert for the terror group was killed in an airstrike.
Retired General Jack Keane told new members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Abu Malik was killed last Saturday in an airstrike near Mosul. Malik was a chemical weapons engineer for Saddam Hussein who joined al-Qaeda and then ISIS after the fall of Saddam.
“His death is expected to temporarily degrade and disrupt the terrorist network and diminish ISIL’s ability to potentially produce and use chemical weapons against innocent people,” US Central Command said in a statement.
But the news was tempered by Gen. Keane’s view that ISIS has begun to “dominate” in multiple countries.
“After U.S. troops pulled out of Iraq in 2011, ISIS emerged as a terrorist organization in Iraq, moved into Syria in 2012. Is it possible to look at that map in front of you and claim that the United States policy and strategy is working? Or that al-Qaeda is on the run? It is unmistakable that our policies have failed,” Gen. Keane said.
“In my view, we became paralyzed by the fear of adverse consequences in the Middle East after fighting two wars,” he added. “Moreover, as we sit here this morning, in the face of radical Islam, U.S. policymakers refuse to accurately name the movement as radical Islam. We further choose not to define it, nor explain its ideology, and most critical, we have no comprehensive strategy to stop it or defeat it.”
