U.S. Could Use Ground Troops In Iraq

Now we are being told U.S. ground troops could be used to help refugees in Northern Iraq.

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Benjamin J. Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser, told reporters on Martha’s Vineyard that President Obama would probably receive recommendations in the next several days about how to mount a rescue operation to help the refugees, who are stranded on a mountaintop surrounded by Sunni militants. He said those recommendations could include the use of American ground troops.

But he drew a distinction between the use of American forces to help a humanitarian mission and the use of troops in the battle against militants from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, something he said the president had rejected before and continued to oppose.

Members of the Yazidi ethnic minority, fleeing the advance of Sunni militants, enter Iraq from Syria on Sunday.France Plans Arms Shipments to Kurdish Forces in IraqAUG. 13, 2014
Maliki Insists He’ll Press Leadership Claim in Iraqi CourtsAUG. 13, 2014
A helicopter, flown by pesh merga forces, delivered aid to members of the Yazidi ethnic minority fleeing Sunni extremists in northern Iraq. After dropping off supplies and picking up refugees, the helicopter crashed, wounding several people, including Times journalist Alissa Rubin and killing the pilot.Crash of Rescue Helicopter Kills Pilot; Times Reporter Is InjuredAUG. 12, 2014

“What he’s ruled out is reintroducing U.S. forces into combat on the ground in Iraq,” Mr. Rhodes said. He added, using an alternative name for the militant group, that the deployment of ground troops to assist a rescue was “different than reintroducing U.S. forces in a combat role to take the fight to ISIL.”

D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.