When Obama says there will be no "boots on the ground"....?

[morningfog]

11. The pentagon said that one of the three purposes for training the moderates was fight Assad.

There is no secret that an objective (perhaps even the primary objective) of this war is to take out Assad.

I don't believe Obama when he says no ground troops. There are already 1,600+ ground troops. There are already statements about increasing that number and embedding them with some Iraqi Army ground combat troops. Although Obama would argue otherwise, that would be combat troops on the ground. In my opinion, trainers are boots on the ground, and pilots are flying combat missions. It is semantics already.

The generals have also told us how and why we will end up with undeniable ground combat troops.

I think Obama knows where it's going. He is going to make an effort to delay ground combat as long as possible. But, I think we will see a point where he feels his hands and will do it. Or, the next president will make that call.