The United States' top military general said Wednesday that half of the Iraqi army is incapable of putting their sectarian differences aside to fight off the Islamic State.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters travelling with him on a trip to Paris that 24 of the Iraqi army's 50 brigades were too heavily comprised of Shiites to effectively work together with other religious sects to combat ISIS.
U.S. military assessors who spent the summer in Iraq found that the other 26 brigades could partner with the U.S., but they would need additional training and equipment, Dempsey said, according to the Associated Press.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, pictured here testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, told reporters traveling with him to Paris on Wednesday that half of the Iraqi army won't fight ISIS
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, pictured here testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, told reporters traveling with him to Paris on Wednesday that half of the Iraqi army won't fight ISIS
Dempsey's admission to reporters today follows testimony he gave to a Senate committee on Tuesday indicating that he would consider advising the president to put boots on the ground in Iraq if the United States' strategy to form a broad international coalition against ISIS fails to ward off ISIS.
President Barack Obama has unequivocally ruled out ground troops in Iraq in numerous public statements, but Dempsey revealed to members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that the president told him privately 'to come back to him on a case-by-case basis.'
Dempsey told the senators that U.S. forces could engage in 'close combat advising' if the circumstances called for it.
While making it clear he was speaking hypothetically, Dempsey suggested that American troops could find themselves 'accompanying' Iraqi troops on a mission to retake the city of Mosul, for example.
The general's affirmation that the president may have to send U.S. troops on a combat mission after all was panned as an about-face by the White House and the first step towards the 'mission creep' that dovish Democrats had been nervous about all along.
The White House rushed to reiterate that Dempsey was not foreshadowing military action and was merely explaining how he would advise the president in a hypothetical scenario.
But on Wednesday Dempsey again alluded to boots on the ground while speaking with reporters about the situation in Iraq.
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