Obama Speculates on Use of Ground Troops in Middle East

In the war against the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), President Obama has made one thing perfectly clear: there will be no U.S. combat troops on the ground. But during a press conference in Australia during the G-20 leadership summit, Obama speculated that he might use ground troops in certain situations.

Obama explained that the Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey had a responsibility to be ready for scenarios that might require ground troops.

“That’s his job, is to think about various contingencies. And, yes, there are always circumstances in which the United States might need to deploy U.S. ground troops,” Obama explained to reporters.

One such scenario would be a nuclear weapon in the hands of ISIS.

“If we discovered that ISIL had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon, and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then, yes, you can anticipate that not only would Chairman Dempsey recommend me sending U.S. ground troops to get that weapon out of their hands, but I would order it,” he said. “So the question just ends up being, what are those circumstances.”