Joint Chiefs Chairman Says Ground Troops May Be Required To Fight Isis

Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey says no ground troops to fight Iraq except maybe on a "case-by-case" basis. Speaking before the Senate Armed Services Committee, General Martin Dempsey said that while President Obama has ruled out sending ground troops to fight the fanatics of ISIS in Iraq, the president has also said “to come back to him on a case-by-case basis." Spencer Ackerman reports: Dempsey, who has long been reluctant to re-introduce US forces into Middle Eastern wars, signaled that some of the 1,600 US military “advisers” Obama deployed to Iraq since June may directly fight Isis, despite Obama’s frequent public assurances that US ground troops will not engage in combat. “If we reach the point where I believe our advisors should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific [Isis] targets, I will recommend that to the president,” Dempsey said, preferring the term “close combat advising.” Dempsey said the air war in Iraq and Syria “won’t look like a shock and awe campaign,” but will instead be “persistent and sustainable.” He envisaged no end for it, but said Isis’ ultimate defeat will be a “generational” effort during which “moderate” Muslims abandon its ideology—raising questions about what the US military’s actual endpoint will be in pursuing the goal of “degrading and ultimately defeating” Isis, Obama’s stated goal. Any Americans not fully persuaded by the president's assertion that no U.S.