President Barack Obama deserves credit for reversing himself on sending U.S. troops into Iraq, but he should model it more on the surge used by President George W. Bush, says Paul Bremer, former presidential envoy to Iraq.
"The problem is … that so far he [Obama] has not put into effect the military means we need to meet his objective" of destroying the Islamic State group, Bremer said in an interview aired Sunday on "The Cats Roundtable" on
WNYM-AM in New York.
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"And he continues to insist we won’t send combat troops back in, whereas every military expert you talk to – including those who are in service today – say we’re going to need American combat forces on the ground …"
Bremer told host John Catsimatidis he believes the war against ISIS can be won, but it will require a much more vigorous American position, including 10,000-12,000 American ground forces.
"The problem isn’t so much the number — it’s what is their mission?" Bremer said. "They have to have the mission — as they had when we did the surge in Iraq that defeated al-Qaida in Iraq [under Bush]."
That would include embedded American forces advising local troops, he said.
Bremer also said Obama should expand his air campaign, and set up a no-fly zone over Syria.
Asked whether ISIS chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in an airstrike a week ago, Bremer said, "I guess they missed him."
Baghdadi initially was reported killed, but ISIS later released an audio recording of him it said was made after the attack. Bremer said it isn't clear whether that recording was made subsequent to the bombing.
Of greater concern, he said, is what Baghdadi says on the tape. On it, Baghdadi welcomes members of al-Qaida groups from outside Iraq and Syria into the fold after they recognized him as the new caliph, or Islamic spiritual leader.