NBC: Defense Officials Say It Is ‘Plain Fact’ That US Will End Up In Combat in Syria

[rangerrebew]

 NBC: Defense Officials Say It Is ‘Plain Fact’ That US Will End Up In Combat in Syria
Posted By Jenna Lifhits On October 30, 2015 @ 2:13 pm In National Security | No Comments

Officials said Friday that it is a “plain fact” that U.S. troops would “inevitably” end up in combat in Syria, according to NBC Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski.

“If there are U.S. military forces on the ground for a sustained period of time inside Syria […], they are inevitably going to end up in combat,” Miklaszewski said. “That’s a difficult thing for the White House to acknowledge, but officials here say it’s just plain fact.”

Miklaszewski hearkened back to the administration’s refusal to call American advise-and-assist operations in Syria combat, even as the U.S. ramped up support for rebels there.

“You remember that operation with special operations forces embedded with those Kurdish forces. One of those soldiers, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler, was killed in that operation,” he said. “At that time, White House officials were saying it wasn’t combat.”

Secretary of Defense Ash Carter “was the first one in the administration” to say that troops are engaged in combat, Miklaszewski said, referring to Carter’s statement at the Pentagon last week: “This is combat. Things are complicated.”

Miklaszewski said that after Carter’s statement, other officials acknowledged the fact that American troops are in combat.

“Subsequently, other military officials have said, of course it’s combat,” he said. “If you’re on the ground, if you’re getting shot at and returning fire, it’s combat.”

Despite the announcement that the U.S. will be ramping up its presence in Syria, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Friday that U.S. strategy has not changed.

“You have heard the president on many occasions discuss our strategy in Syria, and the fact is that our strategy in Syria hasn’t changed,” he said.

Article printed from Washington Free Beacon: http://freebeacon.com

URL to article: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/officials-it-is-plain-fact-that-us-will-end-up-in-combat/

[rangerrebew]

Special Forces in Syria does not mean U.S. entering war: Kerry
 
By Reuters Bishkek Saturday, 31 October 2015

The decision by U.S. President Barack Obama to send special forces to Syria is strictly focused on fighting ISIS and does not signify the United States is entering Syria's civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.

"President Obama has made a very strong and forceful and simple decision entirely in keeping with his originally stated policy that we must defeat and destroy Daesh," Kerry said, using the Arabic term for Islamic State.

"It is not a decision to enter into Syria's civil war. It is not an action focused on (Syrian President Bashar) Assad, it focused exclusively on Daesh and in augmenting our ability to rapidly attack Daesh," Kerry told a news briefing on a visit to Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek.

Asked about the prospect of the United States sending more troops, or getting drawn deeper into the conflict, Kerry said: "I can't predict what the future will bring when our policy is to destroy Daesh, to fight back against this evil. But I do think the president has made a judgment that I completely advocated for and concur (with)."

The White House announced on Friday that dozens of special operations troops will be deployed to northern Syria to advise opposition forces in their fight against ISIS, which is also known by the acronym ISIL.

The decision marked a policy shift for Obama, who has long resisted sending troops to avoid getting sucked into another war in the Middle East.

Kerry, at the start of a tour of the five ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia, described Islamic State, as "a destroyer and it is threatening to take actions against America, Canada and Mexico, against countries all around the world. So ISIL is a... threat that we have to respond to."

Kerry is in the region in part to reassure governments that are anxious about the threat from Islamist militants, especially those operating in nearby Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official who briefed reporters on the trip.

Kyrgyzstan's acting foreign minister, Erlan Abdyldayev, said at the news briefing with Kerry that his government was concerned about instability in northern Afghanistan.

He said the subject would be discussed when, later in his tour, Kerry meets foreign ministers from the five central Asian states in the Uzbek city of Samarkand.

http://worldaffairsjournal.org/content/pentagon-confirms-us-talks-yemen%E2%80%99s-houthis