AP, Zagreb, Croatia, 21 Sep 2014 — The U.S.-led military campaign plan to retake Iraqi territory held by the Islamic State group calls for attacking the extremists from several directions simultaneously, and its success depends on getting more Arab help, the top American military officer said Sunday.
“We want them to wake up every day realizing that they are being squeezed from multiple directions,” Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters, referring to the Islamic State group, which also is known by the acronyms ISIL and ISIS.
“If we can get ISIL looking in about five different directions, that’s the desired end state,” he added in an interview with reporters traveling with him to Croatia from Lithuania, where he discussed Iraq and other issues with his NATO counterparts.

Dempsey stressed the importance of gaining more Arab participation in the U.S.-led effort, suggesting that without it the military campaign might not move to its next phase. He called wider Arab participation a prerequisite for President Barack Obama’s approval of the military campaign plan. Obama was briefed on the plan last week but has not okayed it.
In an opinion column published Sunday in the Tampa Bay Times, Obama wrote, “This is not and will not be America’s fight alone. That’s why we continue to build a broad international coalition.” He said Arab countries have offered to help but he mentioned none by name and did not describe their specific roles.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, said the administration is pleased with its progress in building a coalition.
“The commitments are coming in every day,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” However, she did not name individual Arab countries that have promised to participate in military action in Iraq, saying it was up to them to describe their own roles.