Mr. Obama said he will announce a proposal to escalate the training of Iraqi forces when the Pentagon has presented a final plan.
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Later that month pro-government forces in Iraq formally launched an operation to drive Islamic State out of the province. But he pointedly held out the possibility that it may become necessary. “The president has made it clear that he will look at a range of different options”, he said. The United States recently criticized Iraqi forces for pulling out from Ramadi intentionally, leaving the city in the hands of the violent group. As of last Thursday, 8,920 Iraqi troops had received training at four different sites and another 2,601 were now in some stage of training, he said.
The base in Anbar is not a game-changer, Dempsey said. “No.’ It’s an extension of an existing campaign that makes the campaign more credible”, Dempsey said.
The main effort in the country must come from Iraqi security forces, the general said.
“We have to get our eyes on, develop the relationships there, work with the joint operations center, work with their plan, and then we’ll assess from there”, McGurk said. The U.S. will use Al Taqqadum, a base near the town of Habbaniya in eastern Anbar Province, as a training center, reports the New York Times.
He expressed confidence that the latest deployments to Taqaddum would help advance Iraq’s military campaign against Islamic State, but that the real test was whether Iraq’s government could mend a sectarian rift between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims. That’s why most of the new U.S. personnel will provide security. Prospects for launching a counteroffensive in Mosul this year, however, seem dim, given the Iraqi army’s recent defeat in Ramadi.
On Wednesday, the White House announced that up to 4-hundred-50 additional American troops will be deployed to Iraq.
Instead, U.S. officials are seeking to rekindle the so-called 2006-08 Anbar Awakening. The United Kingdom is sending an extra 125 troops to 275.
Earnest noted that the administration sought to “leverage all instruments of power to counter (ISIS) globally and, most importantly, to protect the U.S. homeland”, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Pentagon spokesman, Col. Steve Warren took it a step further, saying military planners are “actively” looking at more lily pad sites, which, if approved, could mean hundreds of additional troops, if they can’t redirect troops already in Iraq.
The deployment of 450 US troops into the middle of a contested area may also have an impact on Islamic State’s actions, said Slotkin.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, supports the additional aid but said Obama lacks an overall strategy “to win” the fight against the militants.
President Obama also approved a comprehensive approach to aid the Iraqi government’s efforts to support the people and communities living in areas newly liberated from the Islamic State. “If they do not, ISIL can be swept aside, but the underlying issues that allow them to swim freely in this population will remain”, Dempsey said.
The government in Baghdad also has to achieve a greater degree of Sunni-Shiite reconciliation in order to succeed, Dempsey said.
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