WASHINGTON: The United States will not send its troops to Iraq to fight another ground war, US President Barack Obama said on Wednesday and also persuaded his top general to explain his position on this issue.

“As your Commander-in-Chief, I will not commit you and the rest of our armed forces to fighting another ground war in Iraq,” Mr Obama declared. “We’ll use our air power. We will train and equip our partners. We will advise them and we will assist them.”

Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that if airstrikes did not prove effective enough against the IS extremist group, he would recommend putting ground troops in Iraq. But a statement issued by his office on Wednesday said that like President Obama, the general also believed it must be the Iraqis’ fight.

Also Read: Ground troops may be needed in anti-IS fight: US military chief

“The chairman doesn’t believe there is a military requirement for our advisers to accompany Iraqi forces into combat,” the statement said.

The chairman’s office explained that the general had only said in his testimony that, “If we reach the point where I believe our advisers should accompany Iraqi troops on attacks against specific ISIL (now known as IS) targets, I will recommend that to the President.”

Gen Dempsey’s earlier statement contradicted the pledge President Obama had made to his nation while withdrawing US troops from Iraq in 2011 that he would never re-send them.

Immediately after Gen. Dempsey’s statement, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the chairman was only talking about a range of options for Mr Obama, and not about recommitting ground troops.

On Wednesday, President Obama visited the Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Florida, to discuss his military strategy for fighting militants in Iraq and Syria with his top generals.

In remarks at the Macdill Air Force Base in Tampa, Mr Obama said he believed that “after a decade of massive ground deployments, it is more effective to use our unique capabilities in support of partners on the ground so they can secure their own countries’ futures”.

This, he said, was “the only solution that will succeed over the long term”. He said that in the fight against the extremists, the United States will lead a broad coalition of countries who have a stake in this fight.

Published in Dawn, September 18th , 2014