Iraq and Syria Mission Creep : It Is Time for President Trump to Tell America about His Military Plan to Destroy ISIS

While Americans worry about healthcare, the war in Iraq and Syria rages on, and mainstream media is not reporting much about it, except for the battle to retake Mosul from ISIS. • • • US GROUND TROOP BUILD-UP IN IRAQ AND SYRIA. The Military Times reported on February 27 that a Pentagon spokesman announced that Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was presenting the White House with a plan to "rapidly defeat" the Islamic State group. The strategy includes significant elements of the approach President Trump inherited, while potentially deepening US military involvement in Syria. Navy Captain Jeff Davis said Mattis provided the results of his 30-day strategy review ahead of a Cabinet-level meeting of the National Security Council. Davis said details of the report are classified secret, adding : "It is a plan to rapidly defeat ISIS." The Military Times said officials familiar with the review believe it will likely lead to decisions that mean more US military involvement in Syria, and possibly more ground troops, while the current US plan in Iraq appears to be working and will require fewer changes. The officials weren't authorized to speak publicly about the document and demanded anonymity. Davis described the Mattis report as "a framework for a broader discussion" of a strategy to be developed over time, rather than a ready-to-execute military plan. • In a January 28 executive order, Trump said he wanted within 30 days a "preliminary draft" of a plan to "defeat ISIS." Davis said the report defines what it means to "defeat" the group, which he wouldn't reveal to reporters. It also includes some individual actions that will require decisions by the White House, Davis said, "but it's not a 'check-the-block, pick A or B or C' kind of a plan. This is a broad plan. It is global. It is not just military. It is not just Iraq/Syria." Beyond military options, the officials familiar with the review said Mattis conferred with elements across government, and the report increases emphasis on nonmilitary elements of the campaign already underway, including putting a squeeze on ISIS finances, as well as limiting recruiting and counter propaganda that is credited with inspiring violence in the US and Europe. • Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said before the report was presented that the emerging strategy will target not just ISIS militants but also al-Qaida and other extremist organizations in the Middle East and beyond, whose goal is to attack the United States. He emphasized that it would not rest mainly on military might. Dunford's comment suggested that Pentagon leaders may have a more nuanced view of ISIS than is reflected in Trump's promise to "obliterate" the group. Dunford said the US should be careful that in solving the ISIS problem, it does not create others. Among sensitive questions are how to deal with Turkey, a NATO ally with much at stake in neighboring Syria, and Russia, whose year-and-a-half military intervention has propped up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government. The officials who talked to the Military Times said the recommended approaches will echo central elements of the Obama administration's strategy, which centered on the US military supporting local forces rather than doing the fighting for them. Mattis had already signaled publicly he sees no value in having US combat forces take over the ground war : "I would just tell you that by, with and through our allies is the way this coalition is going against Daesh." Asked if adding more US troops or better arming Syria's Kurds were options, Mattis said he will "accommodate any request" from his field commanders. He said a degree of "confidentiality" was required so plans aren't exposed to the enemy. • Army General Joseph Votel, the commander of US Central Command, which oversees military operations in the Mideast, has said more American troops may be needed to speed up the fight in Syria. The US currently has a reported contingent of 500 special operations forces in Syria helping to organize, advise and assist local forces. • • • US, RUSSIA AND TURKEY COORDINATION IN SYRIA. One of the toughest problems the Trump administration faces concerns Russia's military role in Syria. Although Trump has expressed interest in working with Russia against ISIS, the Pentagon has been reluctant to go beyond military-to-military contacts that are aimed at avoiding accidents in the airspace over Syria. But, in early March, the top generals from Turkey, the United States and Russia met in Turkey to discuss mutual suspicions over northern Syria military operations, as Russia's military announced a two-week long cease-fire between rebels and the government in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus. The Russian military said a cease-fire has been in place since Tuesday, March 6, and will extend until March 20, for the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus, but activists reported a number of airstrikes and artillery strikes by government forces, killing two civilians. The Military Times reported that al-Assad forces have intensified their siege against the civilians and rebels there since February in an effort to secure a surrender that would see part of the population sent to exile, but the UN has denounced other such arrangements as "forced displacement" and war crimes. The Siege Watch monitoring group says around 400,000 people are trapped under the constant bombardment. • The surprise meeting between Turkey's General Hulusi Akar, Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff, was called to address reciprocal mistrust between Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces, US-backed Kurdish forces, and Russian-allied Syrian al-Assad government forces, fighting their way toward the ISIS de facto capital, Raqqa. Turkey, a NATO ally, views the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) as terrorists and has threatened to drive them from the northern town of Manbij, which the alliance captured from the militants last year with the aid of US-led coalition airstrikes. Turkey and Syria meanwhile support opposite sides in the Syrian civil war. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing a campaign rally in the Turkish capital Ankara, reiterated his readiness to confront the Kurdish forces : "We can clear Manbij together, then we can clear Raqqa together." • The US has a few hundred Special Operations forces embedded with the SDF and wants the alliance to lead the march on Raqqa. The Pentagon said prior to the meeting that US forces have also taken up positions on the outskirts of Manbij to try to keep a lid on tensions. According to the Military Times, the Pentagon calls its effort in Manbij "reassure and deter." It's focused on keeping peace between Syrian Kurdish militias and Turkish military units, both of whom are fighting the Islamic State group but remain deeply distrustful of one another. Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said : "It's a visible reminder, for anybody who's looking to start a fight, that the only fight that should be going on right now is with ISIS." The US has authorized a force of 500 troops, predominantly Special Forces, to operate in Syria. It's unclear if this deployment breaches that threshold. • Turkish Prime Minister Yildirim said : "There is a need for an effective coordination in the efforts to clear Syria of all terror groups because so many countries are involved there. If we cannot establish coordination, the risk of a conflict that we would not desire can emerge. That's the real aim of the meeting." Turkish President Erdogan has threatened to “liberate” the city from Kurdish fighters and give it back to local Arabs, according to reports. Manbij is controlled by a coalition of Arab and Syrian Kurdish forces. Turkey considers the Kurds, a group known as the YPG, to be allied with extremists responsible for terror attacks in Turkish. However, the YPG has been a valuable ally to the US in its fight against ISIS, and the issue has created tension between Ankara and Washington. Operation Euphrates Shield, launched by Turkey in August, has the dual mandate of defeating ISIS and the YPG, according to Al Monitor. This is a challenge for the US as it seeks to protect one ally while not provoking another. Jennifer Cafarella, an expert on the Syrian conflict at the Institute for the Study of War, said sending US troops into Manbij is an attempt to make Turkey dial back, but the move highlights lingering questions about the Pentagon's long-term objectives there. Cafarella said : "The US still needs a strategy to reach a three-way deal with Erdogan and the YPG that sets mutually agreeable terms for a de-escalation in northern Syria. What that deal would require is unclear, because it hasn't been explored.” • The Russian Defense Ministry said in a brief statement that the military chiefs talked about "the current situation in the fight against terrorist organizations in Syria in the context of raising the efficiency of confronting all terrorist organizations in the future." It said they "underlined the importance of taking additional steps to prevent incidents during operations." • We might be forgiven for thinking that Manbij is still under ISIS control -- not at all. Manbij was liberated from ISIS late in 2016. The situation facing the 100 Army Rangers and their Russian counterparts in Manbij is the "allied" argument over who gets to take command in the northern Syrian city -- Kurds or Turkish-aligned fighters, according to the Military Times. Fewer than 100 elite Army Rangers are in Manbij to keep the peace between Syrian Kurdish forces and those loyal to Turkey, said Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis. Russian troops are there providing security for humanitarian convoys that have entered the war-torn city, a development Davis called unsurprising after the high-level talks between the senior-most military commanders from Russia, Turkey and the US. The Americans and Russians have had no close interaction on the ground, Davis said. Moscow, he added, has “kept us abreast of their operations” in Manbij, but the two militaries do not coordinate in Syria. Rather, the Pentagon prefers the term “deconflict.” Indeed, Davis told reporters in early March : “Why we’re there, and why we care, is we want to make sure the parties on the ground aren’t shooting at each other.” • • • US TROOPS NEAR RAQQA. While the tensions were being reduced in Manbij, the Army Times was reporting that a team from the 75th Ranger Regiment is operating in Syria as American forces ramp up the fight against ISIS in its capital city, Raqqa, which is southeast of Manbij. The special operators and a Marine artillery unit are positioned in Syria to provide support to the commander of Operation Inherent Resolve in the effort to liberate Raqqa, according to US Central Command spokesman Air Force Lieutenant Colonel John Dorrian : "The exact numbers and locations of these forces are sensitive in order to protect our forces, but there will be approximately an additional 400 enabling forces deployed for a temporary period to enable our Syrian partnered forces to defeat ISIS in Raqqa," Dorrian said in early March. According to the Marine Corps Times, a "couple hundred" Marines have arrived in Syria. They are a contingent from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit that has deployed within artillery range from the ISIS de facto capital of Raqqa. The Marines are pre-positioning howitzers to provide artillery support to friendly ground forces, who are in the process of isolating Raqqa ahead of a planned offensive to retake the city, the US Marine Corps official said, adding that the deployment of Marines is temporary, so they will leave Syria as soon as their support is no longer needed, the official said. • • • MORE US TROOPS TO MOSUL IN IRAQ. The Military Times reported last Sunday that an unspecified number -- NBC reports the number at 275 -- of combat soldiers from the US Army's 82nd Airborne Division have been ordered to northern Iraq, "marking the Pentagon's latest escalation in what's been a slow-moving campaign to flush Islamic State fighters from their stronghold in the city of Mosul. Additional members of 2/82 BCT are deploying to Iraq on a non-enduring temporary mission to provide additional 'advise and assist' support to our Iraq partners as they liberate Mosul," US officials in Baghdad told the Military Times. The unit designation refers to the division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, a force of more than 4,000 based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The Military Times explained that a brigade combat team comprises infantry, artillery and cavalry troops, plus their supply pipeline. About 1,700 soldiers from the same unit are overseas now, spread between Iraq and Kuwait. It's unclear whether the full remainder -- approximately 2,500 paratroopers -- will receive deployment orders. Earlier this month, a top Army general told Congress there were plans to do precisely that, and distribute those personnel within Iraq and Syria. On Sunday, US officials would say only that this new surge in Mosul will not reunite the entire brigade. • This is a sensitive topic for several reasons, says the Military Times : "not the least of which centers around a deepening desire in Washington to limit the perception abroad that America's military footprint is growing in Iraq and Syria. The Trump administration also has expressed a desire to limit what information it telegraphs about military strategy." • There are 5,262 US troops authorized to be in Iraq, and another 503 in Syria, officials told the Military Times on Sunday. But the numbers have been considerably larger for quite some time as commanders leverage what they call temporary -- or "non-enduring" -- assignments like this one involving the 82nd Airborne in Mosul. US officials told the Military Times that none of the 82nd Airborne soldiers bound for Mosul is expected to be rerouted to Syria, where a major US-backed operation, launched last week, seeks to sever the Islamic State's last escape route from Raqqa. That effort involves an unspecified number of American military advisors, supported by Marine Corps artillery and US warplanes. Inside Mosul, US military advisors wear black to blend in with elite Iraqi units. Army Major General Joseph Martin, who oversees all coalition land forces in Iraq and Syria, told the Military Times last month that the block-by-block fight is the most complex he's witnessed due in large part to the city's size, which he equated to Philadelphia, and the amount of time ISIS had to establish its defenses. And even as the Iraqis make progress, he noted, ISIS continues to adapt. "It’s urban combat of the like, of a scope and scale I have not see in thirty-one years," the general said, "and I’ve served in combat a couple of times." • • • AND MORE US TROOPS ARE IN KUWAIT. The Army Times reported on March 9 that the US military is sending up to an additional 2,500 ground combat troops to a staging base in Kuwait from which they could be called upon to back up coalition forces battling ISIS in Iraq and Syria. According to the Army Times, the deployment will include elements of the 82nd Airborne Division's 2nd Brigade Combat Team, which is based at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. About 1,700 soldiers from the same unit are overseas now, spread between Iraq and Kuwait. They're focused on the US-led effort to train and assist the Iraqi troops doing much of the fighting against ISIS there. Army Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson, the Army's deputy chief of staff for operations, told House lawmakers that these new personnel will be "postured there to do all things, Mosul, Raqqa, all in between." Anderson was referring to ISIS' two main strongholds : Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, major urban centers where US-back allies are fighting a well entrenched enemy. "So the whole brigade will now be forward," Anderson said. The Army Times says it's unclear when this new wave of paratroopers will deploy. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Buccino, an 82nd Airborne Division spokesman, referred questions to the US military command in Baghdad. Officials there did not directly address Military Times' questions seeking additional details. Rather, they issued the following statement on Friday acknowledging Anderson's remarks on Capitol Hill : "There are a number of options under consideration as the coalition looks for ways to accelerate the defeat of ISIS. We continue to believe that the most effective way to achieve a lasting victory is to do it by, with and through our partner forces who have the greatest stake in the outcome. For operational security reasons, we will not discuss future deployments or contingency operational planning." All told, the 82nd Airborne's 2nd Brigade Combat Team includes about 4,400 soldiers who compose infantry, artillery and cavalry units, plus their supply pipeline. • • • MISSION CREEP: HOW MANY US TROOPS ARE IN IRAQ/SYRIA? Today, there are about 6,000 American troops deployed in Iraq and Syria. The Military Times says are 5,262 US troops authorized to be in Iraq, and another 503 in Syria. But the numbers have been considerably larger for quite some time as commanders leverage what they call temporary -- or "non-enduring" -- assignments like the one involving the 82nd Airborne in Mosul. The Pentagon is reportedly weighing plans to send upwards of another 1,000 troops to Raqqa. If those plans bear out, the US would have closer to 10,000 military personnel on the ground for a mission officials continue to say is advisory. And, US militray commanders face growing pressure from the Trump White House to intensify the fight against ISIS in both theaters, and step up efforts to dismantle terror groups elsewhere that threaten the US and its interests. • • • DEAR READERS, top-tier defense officials have signaled that the Middle East is likely to see more American deployments in the coming months. The Stars and Stripes reports that when speaking to the Senate Armed Services Committee on possible new deployments to Syria, Army General Joseph Votel, the CENTCOM commander, said that “as we move more towards the latter part of these operations into more of the stability and other aspects of the operations, we will see more conventional forces requirements perhaps." The Kremlin-supported RT media outlet cited the presence of an Army Rangers unit spotted on March 6 near Manbij, driving Stryker vehicles and armored Humvees. A day earlier, a Marine artillery team set up a fire base outside the Syrian city of Raqqa, the last remaining ISIS bastion in the country, according to the Washington Post. And, as Washington increases its military presence in Syria, RT says the al-Assad regime continues to voice concern over the legitimacy of the US deployment. Speaking to China’s Phoenix TV, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted that “foreign troops coming to Syria without our invitation or consultation or permission...are invaders, whether they are American, Turkish, or any other one.” Al-Assad told the Syrian state news agency SANA that the US “didn’t succeed anywhere they sent troops, they only create a mess; they are very good in creating problems and destroying, but they are very bad in finding solutions.” • While President Trump's desire for secrecy about troop movements and military planning is commendable, with up to 10,000 US troops now in what are very likely combat roles or near-combat positions, the time is fast approaching for President Trump to explain in broad terms to the American people his plans for the US military in Iraq and Syria -- and indeed, the entire Middle East. This is not to say that Americans would be opposed to a well-designed strategy to confront and eliminate ISIS and other islamic terrorist groups in the region. But, President Obama got into trouble with Americans because he practiced "mission creep" without either a strategy or a willingness to admit that he was committing increasingly large numbers of US soldiers to an undeclared war that he seemed unwilling to win. President Trump was elected while stating that he would commit sufficient US troops to "obliterate" ISIS. Now, America deserves to know how he will do that. It is, after all, American sons and daughters who will pay the price with their flesh and blood.