BLUF
Dempsey is the product of the traditional military process. He has been a part of that process since he was 18 and the process has richly rewarded him. The traditional military process includes both military and political elements.
So, until ISIS and other Islamic para-military groups gets tanks, artillery, fighter and bomber aircraft they are “no threat to America”. Guess September 11, 2001 never happened. After all those Islamic terrorists didn’t have tanks, artillery, fighter and bomber aircraft; but they directly attacked the US and killed how many? They accomplished something that no one has done in almost a century - killing Americans on American soil. (Pancho Villa only killed 18 people in his “raid” into New Mexico in 1916.)
The costs to the republic to turn around this kind of military blindness will be extreme and will be spread out over several decades.
BTW - A decade ago the military wrote, staffed and coordinated Joint Operational Environment (JOE) study (U) stated that terrorism will be the predominate threat to the US until at least 2025. Guess Dempsey and others were too busy to read and understand what his contemporaries were saying.
Meanwhile, this administration abruptly disestablishes Joint Forces Command (2010) and places joint training and doctrine directly under the Joint Staff. Gosh, what could go wrong?
Since Billy Jeff Buttafuco's terms, the left has been using that against American Citizens that believe in the Constitution and sleeping at the wheel while the Middle East burns.