U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter confirmed that more American ground troops will "absolutely" be sent into Syria if the Pentagon can find more "capable local forces" willing to partner with in the fight against the Islamic State group (ISIS).
"If we find additional groups that are willing to fight [ISIS] and are capable and motivated, we'll do more. The president has indicated a willingness to do more, I certainly am prepared to recommend he do more, but you need to have capable local forces; that's the key to sustainable victory," Carter told ABC News in an interview taped aboard the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. "In order to have victory stick, you have to have local forces involved who can keep the peace after you've helped them win the peace."
"Now those are hard to find in Iraq and Syria," he told the ABC's "This Week" news program.
President Obama has said at least eight times since August 2013 that he would not put boots on the ground in Syria. However, late last month, the administration made a major about-face and announced the deployment of as many as 50 special operations troops to Syria to advise local rebel forces for an undetermined period of time, as HNGN previously reported.
"What they are doing there is they are enabling local forces, a mixture of Kurds and Syrian Arabs, who want to fight [ISIS]," Carter said. "So this small, very elite group, is intended to bring to bear all that the United States can bring to bear, in the way of intelligence, air power and so forth, to help these motivated, capable local forces...And this is an instance of the whole strategy. We have to beat [ISIS]. We will beat [ISIS]. [ISIS]'s heart is in Syria and Iraq."
While the main stated mission of the troops being deployed to Syria is to advise and assist rebel groups fighting against ISIS, Carter acknowledged that American soldiers could be drawn into combat situations. Last month in Iraq, where U.S. troops are also stationed in advisory roles, Master Sergeant Joshua L. Wheeler was killed in a raid with Kurdish fighters against an ISIS prison, according to Voice of America.
"It wasn't [Wheeler's] mission to conduct the assault; it was his mission to support the assault," Carter noted. "But when he saw the assault get into trouble, he sprang into action. Now that wasn't part of his mission statement, but it was a reflection of tremendous personal heroism on his part. We're sending them into a dangerous situation and it can develop into a combat situation as it did with Joshua Wheeler."
