In a new interview of PBS recently, United States Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has reiterated that the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (also known as ISIS, IS, ISIL, and Islamic State) is going well and that gains are being made. Thanks to an international effort to supply Kurdish fighters and other militias and armed groups/armies fighting IS as well as a US-led international campaign of airstrikes and air support, soldiers on the ground have blunted IS’ lighting attack and have started reclaiming territory that had been lost. Now that another 1,500 US troops are going to be shipped over in the next few weeks to act as trainers and advisors, the world can hope that the fight against the extremists will quicken and hopefully return some semblance of peace and stability to this war-torn region. That being said, Hagel also said that there would be no US troops on the ground in any aspect other than those training and advising our allies.

During the interview, Hagel also spoke a little about US involvement in the Ukrainian crisis and reiterated that it needed to be solved through diplomatic means and that the government was reviewing requests for lethal aid, such as guns and vehicles. Hagel also spoke about how we were entering a new era in the history of humanity and that the world is now a much more dangerous place than it was just years ago. Do to the increasing number of “uncontrollables” and factions that act out their own agendas without any regard to nation-states, policy will be more difficult to come up and needs to be flexible. He also mentioned that if the budget cuts and sequestration cuts continue to threaten the budget of the pentagon then we might soon be facing a future where the cuts are so deep that our national security effectiveness is actually hampered in a negative way.

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