Robert Gates, who served as secretary of defense under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, urged Obama to “intensify” his current strategy against the Islamic State but cautioned against deploying American ground troops in Syria and against backing a Saudi, Gulf States-force to fight the Islamic State in Iraq.
“Well, I do think it does need to be sped up, and intensified,” Gates said, responding to a question from Chuck Todd on “Meet The Press” about Obama’s current Islamic State strategy. “But when I hear people talking about a completely different strategy, I don’t know what that is.”
“Putting tens of thousands of U.S. troops in there is not a near-term solution,” Gates said.
“I’m not sure they don’t aggravate the problem,” Gates said. “You’re not going to have combat formation coming out of Raqqa, wearing ISIS uniforms … They’re going to melt into a population of several hundred thousand people … So, I don’t see what kind of ‘totally different strategy’ would actually work.”
Gates’ comments appear directed at Republicans and even some Democrats who have called for significantly more robust action against the Islamic State, namely, the deployment of ground troops. Gates identifies as a Republican.
Sen. John McCain called for a ground force of 10,000 in Syria in the wake of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks. Jeb Bush, among other candidates, also supports the use of ground American troops against the Islamic State.
Marco Rubio has proposed a coalition led by Sunni allies of the United States to bear the brunt of taking on the Islamic State.
Gates also seemed skeptical of such a proposal.
“You hear people talk about sending combat formations from Arab nations into Iraq to fight ISIS — that’s just not going to happen,” Gates said. “First they are not going to be willing to send their troops, but second, the Iraqis probably wouldn’t allow them to come anyway.”
“You’ve gotten a Iranian-influenced government in Baghdad and the notion that they would invite Saudi or Gulf State troops into their country to fight what is an internal fight in their eyes, I think is very unrealistic,” Gates said.
