The Army’s top officer supports embedding U.S. troops with Iraqi military units to more effectively help them fight the Islamic State, but strongly opposes deploying large number of combat troops.
“I absolutely do not agree with right now with putting U.S. forces on the ground,” Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said at a recent Defense Writers Group breakfast with reporters in Washington, D.C. “I am adamant about that. I think it would not be helpful at all.”
Odierno, who is scheduled to retire this year, was insistent that Iraq and its regional allies take point in the fight against ISIS, though he said he would support embedding U.S. “advisers” with forward-deployed Iraqi ground troops.
“Embedded advisers, with increased risk to our troops, would probably make us more effective,” he said.
The U.S. maintains a technological superiority over ISIS that would most likely preclude the group’s defeat militarily, Odierno said. But unlike fighting a state actor like the Soviet Union during the Cold War, military defeat doesn’t necessarily mean ultimate defeat for extremist organizations like ISIS, he said.
“You can defeat someone militarily but unless you solve the political and economic problems, it might not be enough,” Odierno said. “We have the capability to be successful, but is it the right thing to do? ISIS is growing and could we combat that? We probably could do that if we send thousands and thousands of soldiers. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do because we could solve it and then we go right back to where we are today.”
The several hundred U.S. soldiers on the ground in Iraq are confined to military bases where they are charged with training up Iraqi combat units. Those units then are supposed to defeat ISIS with continued training, logistics and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance support from the United States.
Odierno was confident that U.S. military capability could defeat ISIS on the battlefield while simultaneously fanning the flames of its extremist cause. For that reason, he said U.S. troops would and should remain an advisory and training force for the duration of the conflict.
“In terms of ISIS,” Odierno said, “with some of these organizations and non-state actors, it is a very different problem set than a state actor. You have to make sure you don’t become an accelerant to these organizations. That’s why I think it’s got to be solved with Middle East capability.”
“What we have to do is help them and support them to build that capability, which is what we’re trying to do now.”
Odierno did not offer an end-strength goal for the Iraqi Army prior to the resumption of any offensive campaign against ISIS militants. A springtime campaign to drive ISIS from Anbar province was ultimately abandoned when militants ran Ramadi’s Iraqi garrison from the city. Odierno echoes other high ranking U.S. officials who characterized the Iraqis as lacking the will to fight.”
“Until the Iraqis and those in the area want to defeat this threat, it will not be defeated,” he said. “War is always a clash of wills. You have to have strong military leadership. You have to have technical competence in your forces and they have to have the will and desire to fight.”
Odierno said that the lack of any one of those elements can cause defeat. The Iraqi Army specifically has a “problem with leadership,” he said. “It’s incredibly disappointing to me, personally, what I’ve watched happen,” since 2010 when he was the most senior U.S. military commander on the ground in Iraq, Odierno said.