President Barack Obama is scaling back his “no boots on the ground” language in an effort to defend his latest decision to send more special operations forces to Syria.
“When I said no boots on the ground there, I think the American people understood generally that we’re not going to an Iraq-style invasion of Iraq or Syria,” Obama tells CBS News in an interview aired Wednesday. “What I have been very clear about is that we are going to systematically squeeze and ultimately destroy ISIL and that requires a military component to that,” he adds.
Obama pledged at least 16 times not to put “boots on the ground” in Syria, reports USA Today.
But his administration acknowledged recently boots on the ground are necessary to defeat Islamic State. Obama sent 50 special operations forces to Syria in October, and another 200 this week with the authority to conduct unilateral raids in Iraq and Syria.
“But what I’ve been very clear about is that we are going to systematically squeeze and ultimately destroy ISIL,” Obama adds in the CBS interview. “And that requires us having a military component to that, and the 65-country coalition that we put together has been striking ISIL mercilessly.”
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