SECURITY_ War authorization must allow the use of U.S. ground troops: Experts

WASHINGTON EXAMINER

War authorization must allow the use of U.S. ground troops: Experts

By Charles Hoskinson | February 12, 2015 | 1:22 pm

A congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria must allow the limited use of U.S. ground troops, experts told a House panel considering the proposal on Thursday.

"We're going to have to be willing to use ground forces if we're going to have success," Rick Brennan, senior political scientist for the RAND Corporation and a former adviser to U.S. commanders in Iraq, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

President Obama on Wednesday submitted a draft resolution that would bar "enduring offensive ground combat operations" by U.S. forces against the Islamic State, in keeping with his refusal to commit troops to direct action against the extremist group.

"The resolution we’ve submitted today does not call for the deployment of U.S. ground combat forces to Iraq or Syria. It is not the authorization of another ground war, like Afghanistan or Iraq," Obama said, though he left himself some wiggle room to allow limited missions by special operations forces, such as a raid against Islamic State leaders.

That wiggle room didn't sit well with Democrats, who wanted a stricter prohibition on the use of U.S. ground troops. Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, want that restriction removed.

"I would not rule out using American ground troops to take territory if that's necessary to defeat [the Islamic State]," James Jeffrey, who was U.S. ambassador to Iraq from 2010-2012, told the panel. But he noted that a long-term U.S. ground presence was undesirable "because that's perceived as a threat by various actors in the region."

Brennan noted that the language proposed by the White House could prevent U.S. forces from conducting essential missions to defeat the Islamic State, such as gathering intelligence, conducting counterterrorism operations and coordinating precision airstrikes, which he said could reduce the risk of civilian casualties, especially in urban areas such as Mosul. But the biggest problem was its vagueness, he said.

"The lawyers are going to be wrestling with this every day. ... It is going to cause so many problems," he said.

Approval by the Foreign Affairs Committee would be the first step toward House floor consideration of any use-of-force resolution, and their comments are likely to bolster the Republican case that Obama's approach to fighting the Islamic State is too passive and slow to apply the necessary force to defeat it.

"Over the past 12 months, through a dozen hearings, we've seen the ISIS threat only grow," Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., said, adding that the months-long campaign of airstrikes "is not intense enough."

The dispute over the use of ground troops is one of many issues likely to make the process of adopting a resolution a long, hard slog, along with concerns about the timing and geographic scope of any authorization. And if the Senate considers its own version, further delay could come while the two chambers reconcile them into a single resolution.

“It’s going to be hard,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters.

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