Kerry Won’t Rule Out Ground Troops in Syria

Insists US Won't Remove Any Option From the Table

Though the administration has repeatedly made a point of saying that ground troops aren’t being envisioned as part of the US attack on Syria, when actually pressed on the matter Secretary of State John Kerry opened the door to them.

“I don’t want to take off the table an option that might or might not be available to the president of the United States to secure our country,” Kerry insisted, saying that he could envision a ground invasion to secure Syria’s chemical weapons.

President Obama has also pushed the idea of a “broader strategy” for military offensives in the region above and beyond the initial missile strikes when talking to Congress, underscoring that the administration, while trying to make this sound like a one-and-done strike, is already cooking up plans for a much bigger war.

It’s a have your cake and eat it too effort for the administration, as they try to placate moderates with empty promises of a brief, meaningless war that they don’t need to think too much about, while reassuring their hawkish backers that once the war starts there is already plan in place, however vague, to go calamitously farther.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.