Get Ready for Boots on the Ground in Iraq…

Well, that didn’t take long.

Remember when President Barack Obama talked about how
re-entering Iraq wouldn’t require “boots on the ground” or troops
(other than “military advisers”)? Now there’s this:

Gen. Martin Dempsey, the military’s top officer, told a Senate
panel Tuesday he will recommend having U.S. advisers fight with
Iraqi troops against the militant Islamic State group if the
situation requires it.

“To be clear, if we reach the point where I believe our advisers
should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific ISIL
targets, I will recommend that to the president,” said Dempsey, the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff….

Dempsey’s statement did not represent a change from Obama’s
position, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said.

“As was clear from General Dempsey’s remarks he was referring to
a hypothetical scenario in which there might be a future situation
in which he might make a tactical recommendation to the president
as it relates to ground the use of ground troops,” Earnest
said…. “The president has been clear what that policy
is.” He said that the president’s policy of putting no boots on the
ground has not changed.”

Read the whole thing, including a bunch of blather from Defense
Secretary Chuck Hagel. And this, too, from Sen. James Inhofe
(R-Okla.): “It will take an army to beat an army.”

This is shaping up like a bad episode of M*A*S*H,
where the brass and pols are so full of malarkey, the rest of us
are just left wondering when the really bad news is going to get
delivered.

From The New York Times
comes this:

“[President Obama’s] stated policy is that we will not have U.S.
forces in ground combat,” General Dempsey said, adding, “He has
told me as well to come back to him on a case-by-case basis.”

That’s about as open a statement of intentions as you can expect
now, isn’t it?

Related: Sen. John McCain wants boots on
the ground sooner
rather than later.