WASHINGTON Less than a week after the Obama administration announced that it would double the U.S. troop presence in Iraq, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress Thursday that U.S. troops might eventually accompany Iraqi troops to the front lines in their battle to reclaim ground from the Islamic State. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey’s comments, made during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee, further fueled fears that the U.S. mission in Iraq is creeping toward a combat role for American troops, a prospect President Barack Obama repeatedly has ruled out. There are currently 1,400 U.S. troops in Baghdad and northern Iraq, relatively calm parts of the...
↧