On Sunday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey visited Afghanistan and discussed strategies to confront ISIS with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (DoD, LAT). Dempsey told reporters traveling with him: "I think we're all having an important discussion on how to address the transregional nature of what is clearly a persistent threat that has to be addressed at a sustainable level of effort over a period of time," and said that Ghani had told him that he wants Afghanistan to be a "regional hub" in the effort. Dempsey compared the threat in Afghanistan to other sites of ISIS expansion stating: "In Iraq and Syria, you might say they are in stage 6 or 7 or 8 [...] In Libya, they are in stage 3 or 4, and in Afghanistan they are in stage 1 or 2." Also on Sunday, Gen. John Campbell, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, warned that while the U.S. used to call ISIS in Afghanistan nascent, "Now we say it's probably operationally emergent." According to Campbell, Ghani has had two videoconferences with President Obama to discuss the issue of ISIS and will soon have another one.
