In a photo released by the White House, President Barack Obama and National Security Advisor Susan Rice talk listen to Homeland Security Advisor Lisa Monaco while receiving an update on Tuesday’s terrorist attack in Brussels, March 22, 2016. The call was taken at the residence of the US Chief of Mission in Havana, Cuba. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza via The New York Times)
The terrorist attacks carried out in Brussels on Tuesday bolstered calls from the administration to confront the Islamic State (ISIL) throughout the world.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter told the House Armed Services Committee hours after the killings that the United States’ counter-ISIL strategy needs to look beyond Iraq and Syria.
“If we can expel ISIL from Raqqa and Mosul, that will show that there’s no such thing as an Islamic State based upon this ideology,” Carter said, referring to the largest cities held by ISIL. “We also need to destroy ISIL in the places to which it has metastasized around the world.”
In January, using similar language in an article for Politico Magazine, Carter said those places include “North Africa, Afghanistan and Yemen.” The US has recently launched a number of recent airstrikes at ISIL targets in Libya, including one in late February that killed dozens of people — believed by the Pentagon to be militants.
Tuesday’s attacks in Brussels killed at least 30 people and wounded 180 others, with the casualty toll likely to climb after publication. The massacres were carried out through three bombings — one at Maelbeek metro station, and two at Zaventem airport. According to preliminary reports, an ISIL-affiliated website claimed responsibility on behalf of the extremist organization.
“Together, we must and we will continue to do everything we can to protect our homeland and defeat terrorists wherever they threaten us,” Carter also said. “No attack will affect our resolve to accelerate the defeat of ISIL.”
The idea that the US can defeat “terrorism” in a global…