By: Liana DeMasi
As the United States pulls its Marines from Afghanistan, it sends 1,500 more troops to Iraq. This week, Obama announced that 1,500 troops would be deployed to Iraq to help U.S. and Iraqi forces combat the ISIS threat. This deployment will double the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.
The White House stated that the troops are non-combat and are being sent to train and advise Iraqi forces on how to properly terminate the ISIS threat. The deployment was decided after the Iraqi government reached out to Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel. It is expected that the troops could be arriving in Iraq as soon as this month.
The United States has been firing air strikes against ISIS in order to push them back, allowing the Iraqi forces to get better prepared. The air strikes have resulted in numerous loses for ISIS, a needed advance on the Iraqi end seeing as ISIS was gaining more and more land. Yet, this progress does not diminish the continued need for assistance and other countries are reaching out. Nicky Morgan, Britain’s Education Secretary, said that they too would be sending troops to Iraq.
This deployment comes with not only physical threat, but threat to our funds. The House Armed Services Committee said Obama asked for more money to fund the efforts. The requested number is estimated at $3.7 billion dollars. Buck McKeon, the chairman for the House Armed Services Committee, stated that he believed Obama’s efforts were insufficient and needed to alter his plan if he expected to receive that kind of funding.
ISIS has made numerous threats to many different nations including our own. They have followed through with their threats in many of those areas and luckily, not yet in the United States. Many may criticize the efforts of the White House in dealing with the threat of ISIS, but we have yet to see blood on our soil, and hopefully it will remain that way.