Small Wars Journal

Political Promises Against Ground Troops Clash With Military Realities by Travis Tritten, Stars

Sun, 09/21/2014 - 7:28am

Political Promises Against Ground Troops Clash With Military Realities by Travis Tritten, Stars and Stripes

The Obama administration won a key political victory with Congress’ approval of its proxy army offensive against the Islamic State in Syria, a strategy it hopes will spare the United States from sending troops to the region to fight another ground war.

But Pentagon brass and retired military leaders spent the week hinting at a different military reality, one that could require the use of U.S. ground forces at some point to defeat the extremist group.

The clash between President Barack Obama’s repeated guarantees that the U.S. will not deploy “boots on the ground” and the comments of its military officials deepened skepticism on Capitol Hill, where the House and Senate moved quickly this week to approve arms and training for so-called moderate Syrian rebels despite widespread misgivings about the president’s war strategy…

Read on.