Army chief of staff says U.S. may need more troops in Iraq

[morningfog]

Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff, said Friday that it might be necessary to deploy more U.S. forces to Iraq beyond the 1,600 troops that are already there, warning that the fight against the Islamic State will intensify and could go on for years.

Odierno, who previously served as the top U.S. military commander in Iraq during the last war there, also said he would not rule out the need to send small numbers of U.S. ground troops into combat as tactical airstrike spotters or as front-line advisers embedded with Iraq forces.

In a breakfast interview with the Defense Writers Group, Odierno said “1,600 is a good start” and that “I don’t think there’s a rush, a rush to have lots of people in there now.” But he predicated that as operations accelerate against jihadist fighters from the Islamic State, military commanders will revisit U.S. troop levels. “Based on that assessment we’ll make further decisions,” he said.

* * *

Thousands of other U.S. troops are stationed at bases in nearby Persian Gulf countries, from which they are carrying out a campaign of airstrikes and surveillance missions targeting the Islamic State, a jihadist group that has seized large parts of territory in Iraq and Syria.

In the interview, Odierno said the fight against the Islamic State will become progressively more difficult as Iraqi and Kurdish forces — with the help of U.S. air power and advisers — go on the offensive and try to retake territory.

“This is going to go on,” he said. “This is not a short term — I think the president said three years. I agree with that — three years, maybe longer. And so what we want to do is do this right. Assess it properly, see how it’s going, adjust as we go along, to make sure we can sustain this.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/army-chief-of-staff-says-us-may-need-more-troops-in-iraq/2014/09/19/63917a0c-400e-11e4-b03f-de718edeb92f_story.html

[99th_Monkey]

1. ISIL mission creep is becoming a stampede

I just posted this yesterday, re Gen. Dempsey's comments .. now this. Not good.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025552144

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. What's the difference between "ground troops" and "troops"?

Are the pilots not "troops"? Are they not killing people? Do they not bleed because their boots aren't "on the ground"?

[bigdarryl]

3. Obama needs to lock this ass wholes heels

This mother fucker is itching for a all out ground war

[msongs]

4. forward he cried, from the rear, and the front ranks died....effing military coward nt