The war on terrorism is slightly different in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya and West Africa so it is difficult to lump them into one strategy, but Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said there is a common thread in U.S. actions.

“Our basic approach is to work by, for and with our partners in the region, to increase their capabilities and try to reduce terrorist threats to where local police forces and local intelligence forces can manage those at a local level,” Milley said.

“We are in a very, very long struggle against violent extremist organizations, terrorist organizations, that have a very radically different view of the world than we do. They consciously want to kill Americans, undermine American interest, kill all our friends and partners not only in the Middle East, but elsewhere,” Milley said.

Milley said the U.S. military operations against the Islamic State militants have “been very successful to date” and he was confident “we will destroy the organizational entity known as ISIS … in the not too distant future,” using the abbreviation for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Destroying ISIS won’t end terrorism, he said. “They will disperse,” he said, with its members joining or forming other similar extremist groups. “All of these organizations can morph amoeba-like into different forms. They are all dependent on a very radical ideology which ultimately will have to be destroyed, mostly by the peoples of the region.”