Defense Secretary Ash Carter said Wednesday that he has not recommended sending U.S. ground combat forces to the Middle East to fight the Islamic State in part because it would "Americanize" the conflict there.
USA Today reported that Carter, speaking during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, explained why he and Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have not supported sending a significant number of ground troops to Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIL or ISIS), which recently claimed the terror attacks in Paris and inspired the shooting in San Bernardino, California.
"While we certainly have the capability to furnish a U.S. component to such a ground force, we have not recommended this course of action for several reasons. In the near term, it would be a significant undertaking that, much as we may wish otherwise, realistically, we would embark upon largely by ourselves; and it would be ceding our comparative advantage of special forces, mobility, and firepower, instead fighting on the enemy’s terms," Carter told lawmakers.
"In the medium-term, by seeming to Americanize the conflicts in Iraq and Syria, we could well turn those fighting ISIL or inclined to resist their rule into fighting us instead."
Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), who chairs the Armed Services Committee, pushed back on Carter’s statements, alleging that his logic did not make sense. McCain, himself a veteran and war hero, said that a U.S.-lead international force is necessary to defeat the Islamic State.
"We are not winning this war, and time is not on our side," McCain stated.
While Carter opposes sending combat troops to Iraq and Syria, the Defense Secretary has authorized a small number of special operations forces to help support groups fighting the Islamic State. Last week, Carter announced that the Pentagon will send a "specialized expeditionary targeting force" to Iraq to conduct raids, free hostages, gather intelligence, and capture terrorists. The force is expected to include 100 troops.
A month prior, the Defense Department announced that it will send a small number of special operations forces--less than 50 troops--to Syria to help support the so-called "Syrian Democratic Forces" fighting the Islamic State there.
An U.S. intelligence report commissioned by the White House and delivered to President Obama following the Paris terror attacks indicated that the Islamic State could spread worldwide if it does not lose large amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria.
Amid heightened security concerns, a majority of Americans support the U.S. sending ground troops into combat operations against the Islamic State in the Middle East, according to a CNN/ORC poll released this week.