Western combat troops may be needed in ISIS fight, former British PM says

Tony Blair said Sunday that President Obama is “absolutely right” in his strategy for confronting Islamic militants in the Middle East.

{mosads}But the former British prime minister cautioned that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is powerful enough that it must be taken on in a ground war. He hinted Western troops might be needed in that fight.

“It’s now very obvious — from Syria, from Libya, from everything that’s happening in the world — that this problem isn’t going away, and I think you’ll find that the policy undergoes a process of evolution, where people realize in different situations you’re having different strategies, and there may be situations in which we are prepared to use combat force,” Blair said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.

Blair emphasized, “there’s no need to put in a kind of army of occupation.”

“You’re not rerunning Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said. “But I think there will undoubtedly be, over time, a need to hit ISIS not simply through an aerial campaign, but also on the ground. The question will be: Can those people, if they’re supported locally, can they do that job or will we have to supplement that?”

Obama’s strategy has hinged largely on the plan to train and equip Syrian rebels fighting ISIS on the ground, an expansion of war powers granted him by Congress last week. And on Saturday, the president amplified his earlier vows not to use U.S. combat troops on the ground in the ISIS fight.

“I won’t commit our troops to fighting another ground war in Iraq or in Syria. It’s more effective to use our capabilities to help partners on the ground secure their own country’s futures,” Obama said in his weekly radio address. “We will use our air power. We will train and equip our partners. We will advise, and we will assist. And we’ll lead a broad coalition of nations who have a stake in this fight.”

Still, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel last week he would recommend the use of U.S. ground troops if he thinks the situation requires them.

The comments were met with immediate push back from top leaders on Capitol Hill, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who warned Thursday that she wouldn’t support that strategy, regardless of what the Pentagon thinks.

“Certainly, he [Obama] will be affected by what the generals say,” Pelosi said. “But I think the generals should know that there’s no appetite in the public for combat troops on the ground.”

Blair acknowledged the public’s reluctance to return to the days of entrenched warfare involving Western forces in the Middle East. But he raised questions about whether the strategy to train and equip local forces to combat ISIS would be enough to eradicate the fast-rising terrorist group.

“You certainly need to fight groups like ISIS on the ground, [and] it is possible that those people who are there locally and who have the most immediate interest in fighting ISIS can carry on the ground offensive against them,” Blair said. “But, look, this will evolve over time. … And I’m sure that the leadership both in the U.S. and elsewhere, which make sure that whatever is necessary to defeat ISUS is done.

“The most important thing … [is that] there is today a huge understanding … within the Arab world and the majority Muslim countries that this is their fight as much, if not more, than ours,” Blair added. “And that they’re prepared to work with us in order to defeat this extremism.”