John Kirby Asked Point Blank: Is Eradicating Hamas Achievable?
On Monday, Admiral John Kirby was asked whether Israel has officially invaded Gaza and about their assessment of Israel’s objective there.
Transcript
00:00 (laughter)
00:01 The Press: So over the weekend, we saw the stepped-up
00:03 Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.
00:06 Does the U.S. at this point consider that?
00:08 Or the President spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu
00:09 yesterday.
00:11 Does he consider it an invasion of Gaza at this point?
00:15 And does the U.S. -- what is the U.S.
00:17 assessment right now of the Israeli objective in Gaza,
00:19 the military objective there?
00:21 And does the U.S.
00:21 believe that eradicating Hamas militarily is achievable?
00:25 Mr. Birneyer.
00:26 Mr. Birneyer: Well, I know that the Israelis characterize
00:30 their ground operations.
00:32 We're not going to slap bumper stickers on it here
00:34 from the podium.
00:35 They can speak to -- and they did.
00:37 They had a press briefing today.
00:38 Defense Minister Golan talked about what they're doing.
00:41 And by all accounts, it appears that what they're
00:43 trying to do is really put a lot more pressure on
00:46 Hamas leaders.
00:48 And when you're trying to go after the leadership of an
00:51 organization, as we well know from our own experience
00:53 against ISIS and against al Qaeda, putting that
00:56 pressure -- you have to be able to apply a discreet
01:00 amount of force.
01:01 And that's easier to apply with soldiers than it is to
01:05 apply from -- just from the air.
01:08 So that's what they have described what they're doing,
01:10 and I think I'll leave it to them.
01:12 Now, as for your question, can you defeat them, I think
01:16 is how you put it, again, you got to be careful with
01:21 analogies, but what we have, I think, demonstrated to a
01:28 fairly well is that you can decapitate a terrorist
01:32 organization, you can decimate their capabilities,
01:34 you can render them a lot less effective.
01:37 You're probably never going to get rid of the ideology
01:40 that backs them up and allows them to recruit
01:44 and to resource.
01:45 But look at ISIS right now.
01:47 It's a shadow of itself.
01:48 Remember, they were storming across Iraq and
01:50 Syria with this big caliphate that they wanted
01:52 to govern.
01:53 It's a shadow of its former self.
01:55 Still a viable threat, which is why we have some
01:57 troops on the ground, but it's nowhere near the
01:59 threat that it once was.
02:00 And al Qaeda, same thing.
02:02 I mean, you can say that the most recent intelligence
02:04 community report analysis that they have been
02:08 rendered completely ineffective in places like
02:10 Afghanistan.
02:11 Doesn't mean that there aren't offshoots, doesn't
02:13 mean that they don't try to morph and change into
02:17 something else, but we think that you can, in fact,
02:20 have a tremendous impact on a terrorist organization's
02:25 leadership, their resourcing, their capabilities,
02:28 their ability to recruit, their ability to operate.
02:30 Doesn't mean it all goes away, but you can.
02:32 Catch ya.