The Obama administration is continuing to ramp up its rhetoric against the Islamic State following the group’s release of a video showing the beheading of journalist James Foley. On Thursday, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, hinted at possible intervention in Syria.

Gen. Martin Dempsey: “This is an organization that has an apocalyptic, end-of-days strategic vision and which will eventually have to be defeated. To your question, can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in Syria, the answer is no. That will have to be addressed on both sides of what is essentially at this point a non-existent border. And that will come when we have a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeating ISIS over time.”

Dempsey was also asked directly whether the campaign against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, would require airstrikes.

Gen. Martin Dempsey: “It requires a variety of instruments, only one small part of which is airstrikes. I’m not predicting those will occur in Syria, at least not by the United States of America. But it requires the application of all of the tools of national power — diplomatic, economic, information, military.”