Obama sends more US special forces, troops to Syria
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US President Barack Obama yesterday announced the deployment of up to 250 US military personnel to Syria, mostly special operations forces, to assist local troops trying to dislodge Islamic State extremists. He called the move essential to keeping up momentum against the group.
The deployment will bring the number of US personnel to roughly 300, up from about 50 special operations forces currently in Syria.
Obama revealed his decision a week after Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that more than 200 US troops will soon head to Iraq, where local forces are also battling Islamic State militants. He said none of the new forces heading to Syria would participate in direct combat.
“They’re not going to be leading the fight on the ground, but they will be essential in providing the training and assisting local forces,” Obama said in Germany.
He said US-European collaboration must extend to the threat posed by IS. As he announced deeper US involvement, he also urged Europe to step up.
Before returning to Washington, Obama met the leaders of Great Britain, Germany, France and Italy. Ahead of the meeting he said he would ask them to step up training and airstrike contributions to the campaign against IS and provide more economic aid to rebuild parts of Iraq recaptured from IS.
“Europe and NATO can still do more,” he said. “We need to do everything in our power to stop them.”
Obama discussed his troop decision briefly during a broader speech on US-European relations and the importance to the world of continued European unity. Obama urged Europe’s leaders to pay attention to income inequality, which he said creates wedges among populations, and other issues including education for young people.
“If we do not solve these problems, we start seeing those who would try to exploit these fears and frustrations and channel them in a destructive way,” Obama said. He decried an “us-versus-them” mentality that breeds animosity toward immigrants, Muslims and others.
“This is a defining moment and what happens on this continent has consequences for people around the globe,” Obama said. “If a unified, peaceful, liberal, pluralistic, free-market Europe begins to doubt itself, begins to question the progress that’s been made over the last several decades, then we can’t expect the progress that is just now taking hold in many places around the world will continue.”
The president’s appeal for Europe to stick together came days after he made a forceful argument while in London against Britain leaving the European Union. That possibility, in a June referendum, along with the regional terrorist threat and the Syria refugee crisis, has raised questions about the strength of European unity.
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