Obama Vows ISIS War ‘Intensification,’ But Rejects More Troops

Suggests Current Strategy Will Continue

by Jason Ditz,

Officials are promising to fight “shoulder-to-shoulder” with France after Friday’s ISIS attack in Paris, and President Obama suggested some “intensification” of the war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, but rejected the idea of committing more ground troops to the conflict.

“We are going to continue the strategy that has the best chance of working,” Obama said, suggesting he largely intends to continue the war unaltered, with perhaps some increased airstrikes in the wake of the Paris attack.

White House officials largely rejected the notion of “boots on the ground” in Syria, despite having already announced the first deployments of ground troops into Syria just a week prior. In this regard, there appears to be an effort to keep the escalation of the ground war disconnected from escalation of the air war.

France has suggested their own escalation will also be built around airstrikes, so the administration may also believe that they can make the biggest show of “solidarity” by increasing the number of bombings carried out against ISIS targets.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/11/16/obama-vows-isis-war-intensification-but-rejects-more-troops/