The Vast Majority of Americans Believe We'll Use Combat Troops in Iraq. Of Course They Do.
The vast majority of Americans—some 72 percent, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted in late September—say they believe that the United States will end up using ground troops to combat ISIS in Iraq.
In other words, they don't believe the multiple explicit promises that President Obama has made to the contrary since he first announced the start of this conflict in August.
When Obama says things like, "as Commander-in-Chief, I will not allow the United States to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq," most people aren't buying it.
Why would they? The mission has already expanded far beyond the narrow boundaries that Obama explained when he made his first speech in August; what was once a series of limited strikes to support a humanitarian crusade on a single mountain is now a multi-year effort to wage war against an enemy in two different countries. The administration keeps insisting that this war involving hundreds of airstrikes is somehow not a combat mission. And the official legal justification for the engagement is dubious at best and likely illegal.
And, oh yeah, we're shipping an infantry division over to Iraq. Next month, the 1st Infantry Division is setting up headquarters in Iraq as part of the military operation against ISIS. According to the Army Times, it will be the first division headquarters to go to Iraq since the U.S. withdrawal in 2011.
So of course most Americans don't believe America's promises on ground troops in Iraq. He's given them no reason to.