Obama Promises That Military Operation Involving Hundreds of Airstrikes and Troops Won't Be a Combat Mission or a Ground War

America will absolutely not get into yet another
ground war in the Middle East, President Obama declared today at a
speech to military personnel in Florida.

Yesterday, a top military adviser
told members of Congress that depending how the current
operations against ISIS work out, he might recommend an increased
presence for U.S. ground forces.

But the president promised today that the assembled troops
that he would “not commit you fighting another ground war in
Iraq,”
according to The Washington
Post. 

As a reminder, here’s what Obama said last in his
nationally televised speech on American military operations in
Iraq and Syria: 

“We will increase our support to forces fighting these
terrorists on the ground. In June, I deployed several hundred
American service members to Iraq to assess how we can best support
Iraqi Security Forces. Now that those teams have completed their
work — and Iraq has formed a government — we will send an
additional 475 service members to Iraq. “

There won’t be a ground war. We’ll just have troops on the
ground. 

In his speech today, Obama also promised, once again, to avoid
sending troops into combat missions. “American forces in Iraq will
not have a combat mission,” he said, according to the
Post. Instead, “they will support Iraqi forces.” 

Again, as a reminder, here’s what Obama said last week in a
speech on national television:

“Last month, I ordered our military to take targeted action
against ISIL to stop its advances. Since then, we have conducted
more than 150 successful airstrikes in Iraq.” 

Those strikes, he said in the speech, have “killed ISIL
fighters” and “destroyed weapons.” In the same speech he also
promised that American milirary forces “will conduct a systematic
campaign of airstrikes against these terrorists,” expanding beyond
the airstrikes that had already been conducted. 

It won’t be a combat mission. It’s just that combat might
happen, inadvertently, as part of a sustained campaign of
airstrikes designed to kill enemy forces and destroy
weaponry.