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Nominee to lead Joint Chiefs: Strategy against IS should be re-evaluated if progress stalls

Associated Press
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FILE - In this July 1, 2015, photo, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford walks onstage for a news media at the Pentagon, Wednesday, July 1, 2015. Dunford has been nominated to be the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and says the U.S. and its coalition partners are making moderate progress in the fight against the Islamic State but that the strategy should be re-evaluated if efforts to improve governance and build reliable local ground forces stall. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File) (The Associated Press)

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford, Jr., testifies during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing to become the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 9, 2015. Dunford says the U.S. and its coalition partners are making moderate progress in the fight against the Islamic State extremist group but that the strategy should be re-evaluated if efforts to improve governance and build reliable local ground forces stall. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) (The Associated Press)

Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Joseph Dunford, Jr., takes a seat at the witness table to testify during his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing to become the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, July 9, 2015. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen) (The Associated Press)

The Marine general nominated to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff says the U.S. and its coalition partners are making moderate progress in the fight against the Islamic State.

But Gen. Joseph Dunford adds that the strategy against IS should be re-evaluated if efforts to improve governance and build reliable local ground forces stall.

In answers to questions posed ahead of his confirmation hearing set for Thursday, Dunford says that if he is confirmed he also wants to assess whether the U.S. should focus more on the Islamic State group's "shifting geographic reach" and confront the militants where they are now and where they are most likely to go in the future.

His written answers were obtained ahead of the hearing by The Associated Press.