US to Send 2,100 Marines to Kuwait for ‘Regional Missions’

Adds Ground Troops to Iraq Frontier, But Announcement Doesn't Mention ISIS

1,600 US ground troops are already in Iraq, despite the Obama Administration’s claims that there won’t be any ground war in the nation. More or coming to the region very soon.

The Marine Corps has announced a plan to send 2,100 troops to Kuwait as part of the “Special-Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force” for Central Command, to perform assorted “theater sustainment missions.” The exact timing of the deployment is unclear, but will come at some point in FY2015, according to officials.

Conspicuously absent in the assistant deputy commandant’s announcement was a single mention of ISIS itself, and Marine officials insisted that the planned deployment actually predates the new US air war in Iraq and Syria.

Yet the ISIS situation is clearly going to loom large over its regional “missions,” with the Obama Administration setting up the new war as one that will last for many years, and the 2,100 troops based just across the border in tiny Kuwait.

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.