Get Ready for Boots on the Ground in Iraq…
Well, that didn't take long.
Remember when President Barack Obama talked about how re-entering Iraq wouldn't require "boots on the ground" or troops (other than "military advisers")? Now there's this:
Gen. Martin Dempsey, the military's top officer, told a Senate panel Tuesday he will recommend having U.S. advisers fight with Iraqi troops against the militant Islamic State group if the situation requires it.
"To be clear, if we reach the point where I believe our advisers should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific ISIL targets, I will recommend that to the president," said Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff….
Dempsey's statement did not represent a change from Obama's position, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.
"As was clear from General Dempsey's remarks he was referring to a hypothetical scenario in which there might be a future situation in which he might make a tactical recommendation to the president as it relates to ground the use of ground troops," Earnest said…. "The president has been clear what that policy is." He said that the president's policy of putting no boots on the ground has not changed."
Read the whole thing, including a bunch of blather from Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. And this, too, from Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.): "It will take an army to beat an army."
This is shaping up like a bad episode of M*A*S*H, where the brass and pols are so full of malarkey, the rest of us are just left wondering when the really bad news is going to get delivered.
From The New York Times comes this:
"[President Obama's] stated policy is that we will not have U.S. forces in ground combat," General Dempsey said, adding, "He has told me as well to come back to him on a case-by-case basis."
That's about as open a statement of intentions as you can expect now, isn't it?
Related: Sen. John McCain wants boots on the ground sooner rather than later.
