The Pentagon is considering deploying troops to Northern Syria to defeat ISIS. Any formal deployment would ultimately have to be approved by President Trump. Proponents of the idea say American soldiers could quickly subdue ISIS and without straining regional tensions like other plans would. Critics of the idea say the U.S. government should cooperate with regional powers — and Russia — instead instead of putting lives on the line. What do you think?
PERSPECTIVES
Putting a number of conventional U.S. military forces into Syria is one of the options expected to be presented to President Donald Trump later this month — as part of the effort to accelerate the defeat of ISIS, two senior U.S. defense officials told NBC News on Thursday.
The troops would be sent in to serve as enablers, force protection and engineering advisers, similar to the way the United States has worked alongside the Iraqi Security Forces in Iraq.
Proponents of deploying troops to fight ISIS say if Obama has done it when ISIS was just gaining a foothold, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today. There are no truly reliable partners on the ground the U.S. can work with to defeat ISIS. A contingent of U.S. troops could swiftly defeat ISIS and push them out of the cities they currently hold.
“If we had done that from the get-go we would have gotten to the point we are at now in six to eight months — not two years,” said Steve Bucci, a former U.S. Army special operations officer. The delay allowed an extremist “super virus” to spread, said Bucci, now a nonresident fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
MORE: Will Trump send troops into Syria?
Critics of the idea say defeating ISIS through military force is not difficult. It’s what happens afterward that matters. Denying territory to ISIS is important but it does nothing to address the core issues that allow the group to operate and recruit new members. Without a long-term strategy to stabilize the region and win hearts and minds, deploying U.S. troops to an already volatile situation could easily make everything worse.
The issue is particularly acute in Iraq, where a mostly Shiite army is fighting to liberate the Sunni city of Mosul, just as it has in Fallujah and Ramadi. The Shiite-led government in Baghdad has done little to alleviate the concerns of disaffected Sunnis — the very issue that helped drive some Sunnis into the arms of al Qaeda and the Islamic State in the first place. And the group’s ability to recover from battlefield defeats to inspire terror attacks on civilians remains an ever-present threat, whatever happens in Mosul or Raqqa. thetylt.com
Sending combat troops into Syria would make the unforced errors of the first four weeks look like child’s play. https://t.co/WEsVHlZao4
— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 15, 2017
Mr. Coward 45 may be talking about sending US ground Troops into Syria. I say Don jr, needs to suit up & be on the front line.
— Albert (@albertxpat) February 15, 2017
If Trump wants to send in ground troops to Syria, Eric, Junior, and Jared should go first.
— Miss Mac in Chicago (@sjmccullough55) February 15, 2017 thetylt.com
Meanwhile send our troops to these countries & destroy ISIS where they stand; after building a wall, extreme vetting process & destroying IS https://t.co/3IC4l3CCf1
— Trained2Defend (@NavyVetUSSProv1) February 11, 2017
@Impeach_D_Trump @CNN By “invading” do you mean sending troops to destroy ISIS? You know, I think you might be right.
— Eric Rogers (@thethinkingrev) February 1, 2017
@leighrtyson ISIS began because of a premature withdrawal of troops. We can execute a new plan to destroy them and rebuild communities
— Jimmy Skinner (@JimboSliceNC) January 30, 2017
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