US seeks to beef up its role in Iraq: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed James Jatras, former US Senate foreign policy analyst in Washington, to discuss the Pentagon’s plan to deploy additional American combat troops in Iraq to accelerate military operations against Daesh terrorists.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Is the US trying to save face when it had in a lot of analysts’ view a failed mission in the so-called US-led coalition aerial campaigns’ ineffectiveness, then Russia came in and had a lot of effective campaigns with their airstrikes, is the US trying to save face here?

Jatras: I think that is what is going on here. I do not think people give much credence to the claims of success of the US-led air campaign. It is interesting by the way, the US media has been reported very strongly today that a number two man in Daesh was killed, there has been virtually no reporting on the fact that the Syrian army is about to retake Palmyra from Daesh. This is a non-event.

So I think what President Obama is trying to do here and it strikes me as a very ill-thought-out move is to beef up the American role in Iraq in order to claim some kind of credit as Daesh begins to look like it is starting to meet with some lack of success on the battlefield.

Press TV: And as far as President Obama’s pledge, first you know close Guantanamo, to get all the troops out of Iraq, how does the American public view him reneging on these pledges?   

Jatras: Well you know this announcement just came very recently; we have to see how this ..., what the public response and the congressional response is. This is supposed to be kept at 3800 men. I do not think too many Americans understand or would support the idea that we are sending what amount to combat troops back into Iraq. We had so many killed on March 19th, I believe. I do not think too many Americans want to hear that more Americans are going to be sent back into Iraq and potentially getting killed especially if there is no real strategy that they are part of here and I do not think anybody accuse President Obama of having much of a strategy.  

Press TV: And how effective do you really think 200 Marines are going to be in the light of 20 - 30,000 Daesh members in northwestern parts of the country there?

Jatras: Well there cannot be and I am not making that as an argument to say okay instead of 200 let’s send 20,000 in but obviously 200 cannot make that much difference especially if their role there is primarily to train Iraqi forces.

Again why do you need 200 Marines there, what is the thinking behind this and how much has this been really made understood to the American people that were considering what amounts to a combat role now?

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