Just two weeks ago, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said the U.S. was changing tactics in Syria, a move that includes attacking fuel trucks and infrastructure to make life more difficult for ISIS. Also known as the Islamic State, ISIL and by the Arabic acronym Daesh, the extremist Muslim group has taken over large swaths of Iraq and Syria, terrorizing the population with mass murder and strict interpretations of shari’a law. Its expressed goal is to extend the caliphate it has established on territory it has captured to the entire Islamic world. It is so extreme that its leaders have labeled members of the Muslim Brotherhood apostates.
On Tuesday, Carter told members of the House Armed Services Committee that the United States will be expanding its role in Syria with a new special expeditionary force to fight Daesh.
In addition to 3,500 troops acting as trainers and advisers in Iraq, but supposedly not engaging in combat, the U.S. now is sending or has sent 50 special operations commandos who will be embedded with Kurdish troops fighting Daesh in northern Syria. Carter did not say how many or when additional commandos would be sent, nor where they would be based. But he informed the committee that:
… these special operators will be able to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence and capture Islamic State leaders. Carter said that will improve intelligence and generate more targets for attacks. [...]
"The raids in Iraq will be done at the invitation of the Iraqi government and focused on defending its borders and building the Iraqi security force's own capacity," Carter said. "This force will also be in a position to conduct unilateral operations into Syria."
As more U.S. military personnel are deployed in Syria, it has become ludicrous for the administration to keep claiming there will be no “boots on the ground" there. Of course, even a special expeditionary force 10 times as large as the current special ops deployment is a far cry from what many Republicans want. Sens. Lindsay Graham and John McCain on Sunday called for nearly tripling the number of troops in Iraq to 10,000 and sending 10,000 to Syria:
[McCain] and Graham told reporters during a visit to Baghdad that US personnel could provide logistical and intelligence support to a proposed 100,000-strong force from Sunni Arab countries like Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Graham said special forces would also be included. [...]
US counter-terrorism experts have warned that deploying ground troops risks backfiring by feeding Isis’s apocalyptic narrative that it is defending Islam against an assault by the west and its authoritarian Arab allies.
Graham noted that one reason he wants more troops on the ground in Iraq is to serve as a counterweight to Iran’s Shi’a militias that are fighting Daesh. And in Syria, they would serve as a counterweight to involvement with Russia, which opposes Daesh but also backs Syria President Bashar al-Assad, whom the United States wants to see toppled.
Every day, the tangle of perpetual war grows. With no end in sight. As if some people don’t want to see an end.