Obama Looks at Adding Bases and Troops in Iraq, to Fight ISIS
By PETER BAKER, HELENE COOPER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
New York Times
JUNE 11, 2015
WASHINGTON — President Obama is open to expanding the American military footprint in Iraq with a network of bases and possibly hundreds of additional troops to support Iraqi security forces in their fight against the Islamic State, White House officials said on Thursday.
As Iraqi forces struggle on the battlefield, aides said Mr. Obama would consider establishing a series of outposts where American advisers would work with Iraqi troops and local tribesmen. The bases would be run by Iraqis, and Americans would still not engage in ground combat, but they would play a more active role closer to the front lines.
White House officials stressed that no proposal has been presented to Mr. Obama and added that they anticipated no decision in the next few weeks. But the prospect of further escalation came a day after the administration announced the opening of a new base in Anbar Province, an Islamic State stronghold, with an additional 450 American troops, bringing the total in Iraq to 3,550 — the size of a typical Army brigade.
Administration officials said they would evaluate whether that new Anbar base makes a difference in coordinating the war effort and, if it does, would consider replicating the approach in other parts of the country. Although officials said it was possible other bases could be opened without again sending more American troops, they acknowledged that more bases could require additional deployments.
For Mr. Obama, who has long resisted being drawn into another ground war since pulling out all forces in 2011, the latest developments represented another incremental step back into a sectarian conflict he had once hoped to be done with by the time he left office. Supporters of a more robust effort against the Islamic State called it a welcome if inadequate step to make good on the White House’s vow to defeat the Islamic State, while critics warned of sliding into a broader, bloodier and ultimately ineffective campaign.
“The reason that we would consider expanding the training operation and the advise-and-assist operation that’s underway will be because it’s been an effective element of our strategy,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. But Mr. Earnest emphasized that it was still “very hypothetical” and that “there are no immediate or specific plans to do that.”
After the United States withdrew combat personnel from Iraq in 2011, a number of American forces are still deployed there in noncombat roles, such as trainers and advisers. Here are the numbers of military personnel deployed each month in Iraq since 2011.
Between December 2011 and June 2014, Department of Defense officials estimated that there were 200 to 300 personnel based at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly raised the idea of establishing a network of what he called “lily pads” in Iraq while on a trip to Italy on Thursday. He said he did not envision another military base in Anbar, but Pentagon planners were looking at more northern areas for additional sites.
“You could see one in the corridor from Baghdad to Tikrit to Kirkuk to Mosul,” General Dempsey told reporters aboard his plane.
The model would be the new base already being built at Al Taqqadum, an Iraqi post near the town of Habbaniya in eastern Anbar. The American troops being sent there are to set up the hub primarily to advise and assist Iraqi forces and to engage and reach out to Sunni tribes in Anbar, officials said. One focus for the Americans will be to try to accelerate the integration of Sunni fighters into the Iraqi Army, which is dominated by Shiites.
As the arrangements at Al Taqqadum show, even deploying small teams of advisers at a new base can involve much greater troop commitments. The number of Americans actually involved in advising the Iraqis at the base would be just a small fraction of the 450 announced by the administration.
While American officials said earlier this week that 110 would be directly involved in training and advising, on Thursday they said there would be just 50 advisers. They will be split into two teams, Special Forces who will work with Sunni tribes, and advisers who will work with the 8th Iraqi Army Division. The rest are to provide support, logistics and force protection.
Although the goal is to retake the city of Ramadi, which fell to the Islamic State last month, General Dempsey indicated that an effort may be months away. He said it would take several weeks for the initial command and control center to be set up at Al Taqqadum.
“Timetables are fragile,” he said. “They are dependent on so many different factors.”
For the Pentagon, the timing has been a difficult issue as the United States Central Command and the Iraqi government have clashed over the pace of efforts by Iraqi security forces to retake areas captured by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. While the American military once forecast recapturing Mosul this spring, the fall of Ramadi less than 70 miles from Baghdad put that city much higher on the priority list.
General Dempsey said the United States was still hoping the Iraqi government would find a way to engage Sunnis to beat back the Islamic State, but he also talked of what he called a “Plan B” in case that never happens.
“We have not given up on the possibility that the Iraqi government could absolutely be whole,” he said, but added that “the game changers are going to have to come from the Iraqi government itself.”
Some of President Obama’s statements about the American strategy to confront ISIS and its effectiveness.
“If we reach a point where we don’t think those game changers are successful,” he added, “then we will have to look for other avenues to maintain pressure on ISIL, and we will have to look at other partners.”
Mr. Obama discussed the Taqqadum plan with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq during a meeting in Germany earlier this month. But other Americans and Iraqi officials said they have also talked about expanding the concept beyond Al Taqqadum to other locations.
Both sides have been deliberate about the idea. Sensitive to their own domestic politics, the Iraqis have said that any new American footholds in Iraq should be determined on a case- by-case basis. As a general rule, the Obama administration has conditioned American support on steps toward political inclusiveness and reform in Iraq.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama, noted that with Al Taqqadum the president has already approved five hubs for American troops in Iraq, but has no specific plans for others at this point. “It’s more like notionally we may want to do more of that,” he said.
Mr. Rhodes acknowledged what he called the concern of “a steady drip, drip, drip of personnel,” but added that it was possible new bases could be established by moving troops around rather than sending more. Mr. Obama, he said, was not especially concerned about specific numbers of troops.
“What he’s been more focused on is what they are doing,” Mr. Rhodes said. “He’s been more focused on not getting drawn into a combat role for U.S. forces.”
The so-called lily pad bases could provide the American military with a way to advise and support Iraqi troops charged with protecting supply lines, towns and infrastructure if they do try to reclaim Mosul. And they could signal increased focus on supporting local tribes and fighters, as urged by the State Department.
“The closer the U.S. military is to the action on the ground, the better the chances of influencing positive outcomes, especially in building trusted relationships with the Sunni again,” said Richard D. Welch, a retired Special Forces colonel who spent more than six years in Iraq.
At the same time, it is not clear the approach can be effective if advisers stay on bases. Many former American military officers argue the best way to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi and other cities is to have small American teams advise Iraqis on the battlefield and call in airstrikes.
Even keeping troops on base may have risks. In February, eight suicide bombers tried to get into an air base west of Baghdad where hundreds of American Marines were training Iraqi counterparts. Officials said the bombers were killed almost immediately by Iraqi forces.
Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the latest moves may have some merit. “But creeping incrementalism is rarely a way of correcting a failed or inadequate strategy,” he said, “and this approach certainly is not a new strategy or a way of addressing the problems that the existing strategy does not address.”
Peter Baker and Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington, and Helene Cooper from Naples, Italy. Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed reporting from Washington.
New York Times
JUNE 11, 2015
WASHINGTON — President Obama is open to expanding the American military footprint in Iraq with a network of bases and possibly hundreds of additional troops to support Iraqi security forces in their fight against the Islamic State, White House officials said on Thursday.
As Iraqi forces struggle on the battlefield, aides said Mr. Obama would consider establishing a series of outposts where American advisers would work with Iraqi troops and local tribesmen. The bases would be run by Iraqis, and Americans would still not engage in ground combat, but they would play a more active role closer to the front lines.
White House officials stressed that no proposal has been presented to Mr. Obama and added that they anticipated no decision in the next few weeks. But the prospect of further escalation came a day after the administration announced the opening of a new base in Anbar Province, an Islamic State stronghold, with an additional 450 American troops, bringing the total in Iraq to 3,550 — the size of a typical Army brigade.
Administration officials said they would evaluate whether that new Anbar base makes a difference in coordinating the war effort and, if it does, would consider replicating the approach in other parts of the country. Although officials said it was possible other bases could be opened without again sending more American troops, they acknowledged that more bases could require additional deployments.
For Mr. Obama, who has long resisted being drawn into another ground war since pulling out all forces in 2011, the latest developments represented another incremental step back into a sectarian conflict he had once hoped to be done with by the time he left office. Supporters of a more robust effort against the Islamic State called it a welcome if inadequate step to make good on the White House’s vow to defeat the Islamic State, while critics warned of sliding into a broader, bloodier and ultimately ineffective campaign.
“The reason that we would consider expanding the training operation and the advise-and-assist operation that’s underway will be because it’s been an effective element of our strategy,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. But Mr. Earnest emphasized that it was still “very hypothetical” and that “there are no immediate or specific plans to do that.”
After the United States withdrew combat personnel from Iraq in 2011, a number of American forces are still deployed there in noncombat roles, such as trainers and advisers. Here are the numbers of military personnel deployed each month in Iraq since 2011.
Between December 2011 and June 2014, Department of Defense officials estimated that there were 200 to 300 personnel based at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly raised the idea of establishing a network of what he called “lily pads” in Iraq while on a trip to Italy on Thursday. He said he did not envision another military base in Anbar, but Pentagon planners were looking at more northern areas for additional sites.
“You could see one in the corridor from Baghdad to Tikrit to Kirkuk to Mosul,” General Dempsey told reporters aboard his plane.
The model would be the new base already being built at Al Taqqadum, an Iraqi post near the town of Habbaniya in eastern Anbar. The American troops being sent there are to set up the hub primarily to advise and assist Iraqi forces and to engage and reach out to Sunni tribes in Anbar, officials said. One focus for the Americans will be to try to accelerate the integration of Sunni fighters into the Iraqi Army, which is dominated by Shiites.
As the arrangements at Al Taqqadum show, even deploying small teams of advisers at a new base can involve much greater troop commitments. The number of Americans actually involved in advising the Iraqis at the base would be just a small fraction of the 450 announced by the administration.
While American officials said earlier this week that 110 would be directly involved in training and advising, on Thursday they said there would be just 50 advisers. They will be split into two teams, Special Forces who will work with Sunni tribes, and advisers who will work with the 8th Iraqi Army Division. The rest are to provide support, logistics and force protection.
Although the goal is to retake the city of Ramadi, which fell to the Islamic State last month, General Dempsey indicated that an effort may be months away. He said it would take several weeks for the initial command and control center to be set up at Al Taqqadum.
“Timetables are fragile,” he said. “They are dependent on so many different factors.”
For the Pentagon, the timing has been a difficult issue as the United States Central Command and the Iraqi government have clashed over the pace of efforts by Iraqi security forces to retake areas captured by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. While the American military once forecast recapturing Mosul this spring, the fall of Ramadi less than 70 miles from Baghdad put that city much higher on the priority list.
General Dempsey said the United States was still hoping the Iraqi government would find a way to engage Sunnis to beat back the Islamic State, but he also talked of what he called a “Plan B” in case that never happens.
“We have not given up on the possibility that the Iraqi government could absolutely be whole,” he said, but added that “the game changers are going to have to come from the Iraqi government itself.”
Some of President Obama’s statements about the American strategy to confront ISIS and its effectiveness.
“If we reach a point where we don’t think those game changers are successful,” he added, “then we will have to look for other avenues to maintain pressure on ISIL, and we will have to look at other partners.”
Mr. Obama discussed the Taqqadum plan with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq during a meeting in Germany earlier this month. But other Americans and Iraqi officials said they have also talked about expanding the concept beyond Al Taqqadum to other locations.
Both sides have been deliberate about the idea. Sensitive to their own domestic politics, the Iraqis have said that any new American footholds in Iraq should be determined on a case- by-case basis. As a general rule, the Obama administration has conditioned American support on steps toward political inclusiveness and reform in Iraq.
Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to Mr. Obama, noted that with Al Taqqadum the president has already approved five hubs for American troops in Iraq, but has no specific plans for others at this point. “It’s more like notionally we may want to do more of that,” he said.
Mr. Rhodes acknowledged what he called the concern of “a steady drip, drip, drip of personnel,” but added that it was possible new bases could be established by moving troops around rather than sending more. Mr. Obama, he said, was not especially concerned about specific numbers of troops.
“What he’s been more focused on is what they are doing,” Mr. Rhodes said. “He’s been more focused on not getting drawn into a combat role for U.S. forces.”
The so-called lily pad bases could provide the American military with a way to advise and support Iraqi troops charged with protecting supply lines, towns and infrastructure if they do try to reclaim Mosul. And they could signal increased focus on supporting local tribes and fighters, as urged by the State Department.
“The closer the U.S. military is to the action on the ground, the better the chances of influencing positive outcomes, especially in building trusted relationships with the Sunni again,” said Richard D. Welch, a retired Special Forces colonel who spent more than six years in Iraq.
At the same time, it is not clear the approach can be effective if advisers stay on bases. Many former American military officers argue the best way to help the Iraqis retake Ramadi and other cities is to have small American teams advise Iraqis on the battlefield and call in airstrikes.
Even keeping troops on base may have risks. In February, eight suicide bombers tried to get into an air base west of Baghdad where hundreds of American Marines were training Iraqi counterparts. Officials said the bombers were killed almost immediately by Iraqi forces.
Anthony Cordesman, a military analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the latest moves may have some merit. “But creeping incrementalism is rarely a way of correcting a failed or inadequate strategy,” he said, “and this approach certainly is not a new strategy or a way of addressing the problems that the existing strategy does not address.”
Peter Baker and Michael R. Gordon reported from Washington, and Helene Cooper from Naples, Italy. Julie Hirschfeld Davis contributed reporting from Washington.
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