Obama sends additional 1,500 troops to Iraq

President Obama has approved to send approximately 1,500 additional troops to Iraq after months of a largely unsuccessful airstrike campaign against the Islamic State.

Hindered by spotty intelligence, poor weather and red tape, only a quarter of the strike missions against the Islamic State has engaged its targets.

In the Iraqi War and in Afghanistan, American commandos often conducted raids on safe houses and militant camps, which provided a continuous cache of intelligence. In the absence of boots on the ground, this tactic has been previously unavailable to U.S. forces.

“Air power needs to be applied like a thunderstorm, and so far we’ve only witnessed a drizzle,” David A. Deptula said, a retired Air Force general who planned the American air campaigns in Afghanistan in 2001 and in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

The airstrike campaign against the Islamic State has carried out fewer than five airstrikes a day in Iraq and in Syria. NATO carried out about 50 strikes a day in the first two months of the air war against Libya in 2011.

The influx of troops “signals a new phase,” Obama said on Sunday.

“What hasn’t changed is our troops are not engaged in combat,” he said.

The soldiers will act as trainers and advisers for the Iraqis and Kurds as they plan a major offense, which is expected next spring, against Islamic State fighters moving across Iraq from Syria.

White House budget officials also plan to ask Congress to allocate $5 billion for military operations against the Islamic State in the Middle East, including $1.6 billion to train and equip Iraqi troops.

Americans should brace for a decades-long conflict, said Leon Panetta, former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense.

“I think we're looking at kind of a 30-year war," he told USA Today.

A recent poll found that just 45 percent of Americans supported the airstrike campaign in Iraq, and only 30 percent supports sending U.S. ground forces to the region.

Contact reporter Adam Gibson at adam.gibson@richmond.edu