Susan Rice: ‘To Be Clear, Our Strategy Does Not Involve U.S. Troops on the Ground’

"First we continue to implement our strategy to go on the offensive against ISIL. We are focusing on multiple lines of effort, including using our unique military capabilities to deny ISIL safe haven and building the international coalition to support our efforts. As you heard the president say last night we are pleased with the bipartisan vote in Congress to give us the necessary authorities to train and equip the moderate Syrian opposition, and we are grateful to both, the House and the Senate for acting quickly on these authorities. The reason this is so important is that our strategy entails using local forces to fight ISIL on the ground. Iraqi security forces have already taken the fight to ISIL, along with their Kurdish colleagues, with U.S. support, and obviously now will be in a position to train and equip the Syrian opposition forces which will have the ability to do the same inside of Syria. To be clear, as we said repeatedly, our strategy does not involve U.S. troops on the ground in a combat role in either Iraq or Syria. And no U.S. troops will be in Syria as part of the train and equip program. This program will be hosted outside of Syrian in partnership with neighboring countries. At [indecipherable] earlier this week, the president underscored the importance of building a broad coalition of nations to offer assistance in the comprehensive campaign to combat ISIL. Today, more than 40 countries have offered assistance and we're particularly pleased that France has joined us in conducting air strikes in Iraq, and many other countries from the region and beyond offering other important assistance. This afternoon, Secretary Kerry will be in New York to chair an important session of the U.N. Security Council on Iraq and that session will underscore international support for the new inclusive government in Iraq and it will galvanize and support our efforts to build this coalition to degrade and ultimately destroy ISIL. This work of coalition building is ongoing. It is something that all of the president’s senior advisers are actively involved in, and, of course, the president himself, and this process will continue through next week and beyond."