Earnest: What Dempsey Said ‘Is Entirely Consistent’ with What Obama Said

Earnest: What Dempsey Said "Is Entirely Consistent" With What Obama Said (RealClearPolitics)

WOLF BLITZER: When the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, testified yesterday and left open the possibility that he might have to recommend to the president down the road the use of ground troops, U.S. combat ground troops, if, in fact, the air war itself doesn't work and the coalition doesn't get its act together, did the White House, did the president specifically know that that was in his prepared statement?

JOSH EARNEST: Wolf, what Chairman Dempsey said is entirely consistent with the policy that the president has laid out. Chairman Dempsey was talking about the possibility that in the future, he may recommend to the president some of -- that some of the American military personnel who are already in Iraq right now could be in a position where they would forward deploy with some Iraq security forces.