Obama vows not to send ground troops to fight Islamists in Iraq

US president Barack Obama has insisted that his strategy to destroy Islamic State (IS) fighters would not involve sending US armed forces into another ground war in Iraq after the highest-ranking American military officer left open the possibility of US troops fighting on the battlefield.

In remarks at an air force base in Tampa, Florida, Mr Obama stressed that the US would provide air support to Iraqi combat troops to push back militants that have taken over large parts of Iraq and Syria.

“The American forces that have been deployed to Iraq do not and will not have a combat mission,” he told his military audience.

“They will support Iraqi forces on the ground as they fight for their own country against these terrorists. As your commander-in-chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq.”

Supporting coalition

Mr Obama said that after a decade of massive ground deployments it was more effective to use US resources to support coalition partners on the ground so they can secure their own countries’ futures.

“And that’s the only solution that will succeed over the long term,” said the president.

Gen Martin Dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday that if the military strategy of assisting Iraqi and Kurdish combat forces failed, then he would recommend to the president the use of US military ground forces.

Mr Obama travelled to Florida to meet military leaders at the US command centre that oversees military operations in the Middle East, as well as US secretary of state Chuck Hagel and other members of his national security leader. The president made his remarks a week after unveiling his strategy to "degrade and ultimately destroy" IS.

Robert Gates, the president’s former secretary of defence, criticised Mr Obama’s strategy without the use of ground troops.

“The reality is they’re not going to be able to be successful against Isis strictly from air, or strictly depending on the Iraqi forces or the [Kurdish] peshmerga, or the Sunni tribes acting on their own,” said Mr Gates, who stood down as secretary of defence in 2011.

“So there will be boots on the ground if there’s to be any hope of success in the strategy.”

Not tough enough

A newly published poll from the

New York Times

and CBS found that 57 per cent of respondents felt the president wasn’t being tough enough in dealing with the Islamic fighters. Just 31 per cent believe he is taking the right approach. Mr Obama’s approval rating stood at a record low of 41 per cent in the poll.

Last night the House of Representatives supported Mr Obama’s request to arm and equip moderate Syrian opposition forces the Free Syrian Army, voting 273 to 156 to approve this part of the president’s plan. The measure is expected to be put to the Democrat-led Senate today.

Coming at a precarious political time ahead of the November 4th Congressional mid-term elections, there was little forthright endorsement for Mr Obama’s plan among US lawmakers during more than six hours of debate on the issue lasting over a two-day period.

The House showed cross-party support for the measure, though Republicans raised concerns that the strategy doesn’t go far enough while Democrats expressed fears that it could lead to another long war in the Middle East unless Congress laid out clear boundaries.

Opposing party leaders, Republican House Speaker John Boehner and Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi, found common ground, strongly backing the arm-and-train strategy, though both played down the significance of the measure as modest.