Pentagon says it has foreign commitments to train Iraqi forces

The Pentagon has received a “significant commitment” from other nations to train Iraqi forces, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Wednesday.

“We have 12 advisory teams there now, and yesterday we got a significant commitment of other coalition members to add advisory teams,” Gen. Martin Dempsey said on CNN. 

{mosads}Each team consists of about a dozen troops and is slated to train Iraqi forces and Sunni tribes. Experts have warned it will take months to get Iraqi forces ready to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). 

Recent gains by ISIS have added pressure to ramp up the training. In Anbar province, the militants seized a military base and killed its chief of police.

Foreign Policy magazine reported on Wednesday that an expanded training effort proposed by the U.S. would require as many as 1,000 foreign trainers from the U.S. and NATO partners Britain, France, Germany, and Australia. 

The allies could send hundreds of trainers each, an official told Foreign Policy. Foreign Policy. 

The contributions of each nation have been politically sensitive, because they are subject to approval by their domestic governments and many fear backlash from domestic audiences. 

Dempsey also said he could see circumstances where he would recommend that U.S. advisers accompany Iraqi forces into battle. 

“I can foresee that leading to some point on the ground where I’d say Mr. President, we really need a forward air controller in this particular mission for this purpose,” he said. 

He said he could not see a circumstance where large units of U.S. combat forces would take control of swaths of Iraq but did not rule out the possibility. 

“I can’t foresee a case where we should reintroduce large ground combat forces into Iraq,” he said. “But again, war is discovery, [ISIS] is a national security threat. If we get to that point, I’ll make the recommendation.”