Speaking at a news conference in Australia, Barack Obama insisted he would personally order the U.S. army into ISIS territory if they got a nuclear weapon. He said: “There are always circumstances in which the United States might need to deploy U.S. ground troops”.
RT reports: US President Barack Obama has, for the first time, admitted he would deploy US ground troops to Syria and Iraq to fight Islamic State – that is, if the extremist group obtained a nuclear weapon.
“If we discovered that [Islamic State] had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon, and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then, yes,” Obama told reporters at a news conference in Brisbane, Australia, on Sunday. “I would order it.”
BYPASS THE CENSORS
Sign up to get unfiltered news delivered straight to your inbox.
You can unsubscribe any time. By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use
Since Operation Inherent Resolve – or US-led airstrikes against Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL) – began in August, President Obama has maintained that he would not send a large fighting force to Syria and Iraq to confront the jihadist network, which has come to control large areas of the two adjacent Middle Eastern nations.
However, Obama authorized the deployment of about 1,500 troops to Iraq earlier this month, doubling the American military presence in the country. Yet all soldiers sent to the region are there to “advise” Iraqi forces and not engage in combat, according to official explanations.
US officials said there is no evidence that Islamic State possesses or could easily attain a nuclear weapon.’
Niamh Harris
Be the first to comment