It's animating the movement and it's resurrecting these networks, both funding and operational, that we've long suppressed. So the inescapable conclusion of this, from my standpoint, if you really want to go on offense versus continue to stay on defense, where defense is incredibly difficult, almost impossible, is, don't you have to destroy that caliphate? Don't you have to deny them that territory? Mr. Gardenstein? Ross. Yeah, I agree with that. And it's been mentioned, including by Clint earlier in the hearing, that messaging that diffuses their image, their image, which I call a winner's message, is very important. (18:06–18:24)
CLAIM
Asserts that destroying the caliphate and denying ISIS territory is necessary to go on offense.
This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.
