GOP Candidates Grapple With Question of Sending US Ground Troops Against ISIS
(CNSNews.com) – As presidential hopefuls in the crowded Republican field strive to break out of the pack, the question of sending U.S. troops back to the Middle East, this time to tackle Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists, is gaining prominence.
Leading the running on the issue is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has gone beyond anyone else in the race by calling for tens of thousands of American troops to be deployed to Iraq – and to Syria.
“I would take the fight to these guys, whatever it took, as long as it took,” he said in one of two GOP debates in Cleveland earlier this month.
Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Graham doubled down.
“If you’re not willing to commit more American boots on the ground in Iraq from [the current deployment of some] 3,500 to about 10,000, if you don’t understand we will never destroy ISIL in Syria without a regional army of which we will have to be part, you’re not ready to be commander in chief,” he said.
“And really, nobody on our side seems to be willing to put a plan forward that truly would destroy ISIL,” Graham added.
President Obama’s anti-ISIS strategy includes a campaign of airstrikes and a train-and-equip program involving around 3,550 U.S. troops in Iraq. No U.S. forces have been deployed to Syria, but vetted Syrian rebels are being trained, although at a much slower-than-forecast pace.
Graham painted the White House strategy as a failure: “You can’t do this from the air,” he said.
Graham said GOP rival “Jeb Bush is a fine man, but his plan to destroy ISIL doesn’t have a ground component.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich was asked whether as president he would commit U.S. ground troops to confront ISIS.
“I would have a coalition of other countries, including us, on the ground beginning to degrade and destroy ISIS,” he said, although without indicating how big a U.S. force he would envisage.
On NBC News’ “Meet the Press” entrepreneur Donald Trump said he would target ISIS’ wealth by seizing oilfields now controlled by the jihadists.
Asked about the ground troops that would be needed to do so, Trump said, “That’s okay, we can encircle it, we can encircle it” – but did not directly answer the question or specify troop numbers required.
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson has also spoken recently about seizing land and oilfields from ISIS. Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, he was asked about U.S. ground troops.
“Ground troops may well be necessary,” he said, although when asked about numbers he deferred to “generals and people who really are able to figure out what needs to be done.”
On the same program, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina took up a theme she brought up at the Cleveland debate – that the campaign against ISIS is the Arabs’ fight, and that she would use her good contacts among regional leaders to help them wage it.
“The Jordanians, the Saudis, the Kuwaitis, the Kurds and the Egyptians are all fighting ISIS, as we speak, on the ground. They know this is their fight,” she said. “Yes, they need leadership, resolve, support and material from us. We haven’t provided any of it. And if we did, it will make a big difference.”
As for U.S. forces, however, “I disagree that we’re at that point where we need to put tens of thousands of boots on the ground,” Fiorina said.
Other candidates grapple with questions of U.S. troops
In a foreign policy speech last week former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush was cautious about the need for more U.S. troops on the ground against ISIS.
“We must make better use of the limited forces we have by giving them a greater range of action,” he said. “Right now, we have around 3,500 soldiers and marines in Iraq, and more may well be needed. We do not need, and our friends do not ask for, a major commitment of American combat forces.”
When Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was asked in the Cleveland debate how he’d destroy ISIS, his response did not address troops on the ground. But Cruz told ABC earlier this year Kurdish peshmerga fighters were the “boots on the ground” against ISIS.
Pressed on the question of deploying U.S. troops, he conceded that “if need be, we should go that step.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called [1] last May for “Arab boots on the ground” in the fight against ISIS.
“If the Iraqis are not willing to fight for their country, I don’t think I would send American GIs to do it for America, if the Iraqis are not willing to fight for it.”
In Cleveland, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie sidestepped a question on whether he would have used U.S. military force against the Assad regime for using chemical weapons, focusing his response instead on the “weakening” of the military and the need to “shore” it up.
But last April Christie said [2] in New Hampshire that the U.S. must be ready to put American troops “into the fight” against ISIS, if need be.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker told [3] ABC last February the U.S. needs to go beyond airstrikes against ISIS “and ultimately, we have to be prepared to put boots on the ground if that’s what it takes.”
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) spoke [4] last September of the need for a permanent U.S. troop presence in the Middle East.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal criticized Obama in a column [5] last February for ruling out sending U.S. forces into the fight.
“Politicians on both sides of the aisle need to stop pretending that we will never use ground troops, and they have to stop telling our enemies what we will not do.”
Former New York governor George Pataki said in the Cleveland debate the U.S. must destroy terrorists’ training camps “and then get out.”
“I would not place one American life at risk unless it was absolutely necessary. But to destroy ISIS, it is necessary.”
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said early this year U.S. troops on the ground were necessary.
“I think if American and western values are in jeopardy and U.S. troops working with a coalition force is how you stop ISIS, I think the bulk of the American people are going to say, thank you, Mr. President, for standing up for our values,” he told [6] CNN.
Former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore in the Cleveland debate did not touch on sending U.S. troops, but said he proposes “a Middle East NATO” to stop “this ISIL thing before it becomes an actual state.”
After Obama last June authorized the deployment of another 450 troops to Iraq, former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) said to avoid the spread of ISIS “we must be prepared and have the will to fight. This means more personnel than what this president is offering to support and advise our allies ...”
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said in an interview last month U.S. ground troops must remain an option [7] in the fight against ISIS.
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