Republican congressman and House Foreign Affairs Committee member Matt Salmon called on Monday for President Obama to "be straight with the American people" and to admit that defeating the Islamic extremist group ISIS will require more U.S. troops — and that, despite his promises to never allow it, Obama has sent more "boots on the ground" Iraq's way already.
"Why don’t we be straight with the American people?" the Arizona Republican said during a morning appearance on MSNBC. "There are boots on the ground. You may not want to call them boots on the ground, but the people that are there — the over 1,000 of our troops that are already there right now — their families actually consider them to be 'boots on the ground.'"
While Salmon is correct in saying there already over one thousand U.S. personnel in Iraq — with 475 more on their way, per a recent presidential order — those men and women are technically serving in non-combat capacities. They are supposed to be advisors, coordinators, intelligence-gatherers and assistants. The on-the-ground fighting against ISIS, Obama has said, will still be left to Iraqis themselves.
Along with many other hawkish members of Congress, Salmon disagrees with Obama's hard-line opposition to deploying active U.S. troops to Iraq for ground-level combat against ISIS. "I think, ultimately, [defeating ISIS] is going to take some ground troops," Salmon said on MSNBC. "Absolutely."
"We’re at war with these guys,” Salmon explained, defending a policy position, deploying U.S. troops to Iraq for the third time in 25 years, that is opposed by most Americans. “Let’s quit candy-coating it and let’s go in with everything that we’ve got and finish it this time."
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