The situation on the ground in Iraq has reached a critical point in that country’s ongoing war against the Islamic terrorist group ISIS, as the Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi is asking for more help from the U.S.-led coalition.
“Bombing from the air has been very, very effective,” al-Abadi said. “We are very thankful for the air campaign to support our military, but I think you cannot achieve big things without a real fight on the ground.”
Al-Abadi is echoing what some U.S. lawmakers, including Senator John McCain (R), who has advocated for sending troops to defeat ISIS, have been saying all along
“Frankly, I know of no military expert who believes we are going to defeat ISIS with this present strategy.” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)
“We may be able to ‘contain,’ but to actually defeat ISIS is going to require more boots on the ground, more vigorous strikes, more special forces, further arming the Kurdish peshmerga forces and creating a no-fly zone and buffer zone in Syria,” said McCain, who will, due to seniority, become chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee in January if the GOP takes the Senate next month.
It is obvious that even with the somewhat successful air campaign against ISIS continues, the Islamist group continues to advance and tighten its grip in Syria and Iraq.
During his State of the Union address, President Obama said he would work with the Republican-led Congress to authorize new U.S. Military action against the Islamist terrorists, even as he boasted that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were over, and that he had decreased U.S. troop levels down to 15,000.
Now, Obama didn’t actually call them Islamist terrorist, of course.
Obama has already authorized that an additional 1,500 American soldiers be deployed to assist Iraqi troops back in November 2014.
President Obama will more than likely be forced to send combat troops to defend Iraq and defeat ISIS, which would completely wipe out his legacy of being the President who ended the so-called American occupation of Iraq.