Hagel: Obama Realizes a Combat Force Is Needed; He Simply Doesn’t Want it To Be Us

‘He’s fully aware of and agrees that this isn’t going to be done without ground forces’

"What he has said is that there’s no ground combat role for Americans. Yes, a combat role on the ground is going to be required. Obviously, it is going on in Iraq today. It’ll be required in Syria. And what he has said is it is the Iraqi security forces, the Peshmerga and the Kurdish forces that are the ground forces in Iraq. And we will continue to support them through air strikes and other capabilities we have. Syria, as you know the whole point of train and equip is to help develop that ground force capable, unit-by-unit ground force in Syria. But he’s fully aware of and agrees that this isn’t going to be done without ground forces. But what he’s made clear to the American people -- and I know there are differences of opinion as he does -- that he is not going to order American combat ground forces into those areas. But I — I thought that was a point that you made and that you gave me an opportunity to maybe hopefully clear that up."

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