MOSCOW, September 11 (RIA Novosti) - There is no avoiding the fact that the United States will be putting boots on the ground in the fight against the Islamic State (IS), Chairman of the Armed Services Committee Buck McKeon said Thursday.
“There’s no way around it. American boots will be standing on the sand. Americans will be shot at and they will be shooting back. There is simply no other way to do this,” McKeon said in a Thursday speech at the American Enterprise Institute.
Since the IS showed itself to be substantial threat to regional security in early June, the Barack Obama administration has repeatedly denied an intent to use American “boots on the ground” as part of its strategy. In his Wednesday evening speech, Obama encouraged a counter-terrorism approach to “roll back” the IS involving regional partners, American air power, and special forces.
Obama announced that his strategy would be different from the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, where - according to the Department of Defense - over 2.5 million members of the armed forces went to war. Obama stated that the current Middle East engagement “will not involve American combat troops fighting on foreign soil.”
McKeon argued that the President’s strategy already involves special forces, military advisers, trainees, and security forces currently deployed to Iraq. “This is the right decision, but more can be done... This will take troops, but it will not take divisions.”
Many have been critical of Obama’s strategy for not aiming to defeat the IS, but “roll back” the threat, “degrade and ultimately destroy” the organization. McKeon disagreed with that approach saying, “The President wants to use a light footprint now in hopes that he doesn’t need a heavy footprint later... It has short-term benefits. It will be cheaper in blood and treasure for now.” McKeon said his preferred approach is to “go all in now so that we do not risk [using] enormously more blood and treasure later.”
