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Americans should be grateful to Gen. Martin E. Dempsey for his candor.
When the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told a Senate committee this week that he might recommend ground troops to fight the Islamic State if airstrikes proved inadequate, he was only speaking the obvious. But the obvious has been obscured in facile claims from the White House that no ground troops will be needed and no ground troops will be sent to “degrade and defeat” the extremists. How can anyone be sure?
Wars are unpredictable and almost never turn out the way those who embark upon them imagine. What is our end game in Syria? Or even in Iraq? We’d like to know before this country commits to another long, dangerous mission in the Middle East.
