Concepts & opinions

Hagel: Focus on ISIS, not Assad

Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Sunday the United States should be more focused on defeating ISIS than ousting Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad.

Hagel, who was President Barack Obama's second secretary of defense, told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union" that "ISIS represents the real threat to our. Insisting that Assad must go eventually, though, puts the United States at risk of confusing its allies and adversaries, he said.

"I always thought that we needed to more clearly define our political strategy along with our military strategy," Hagel said.

"There is no military solution to this. We are up against an ideology, we are up against a reality, a set of dynamics we've never seen before -- sophistication of social media, the military prowess, the tactical strategic prowess that ISIS possesses, the funding," Hagel said. "So we should more clearly define, what is our political strategies? What are our priorities? Is Assad the enemy or is ISIS the enemy?"