Obama: Ground Troops in Syria 'Would Be a Mistake'
by VOA News April 24, 2016
U.S. President Barack Obama said he would not consider sending ground troops into Syria, and said there needs to be more than just a military effort in order to solve the country's problems.
"It would be a mistake for the United States, or Great Britain ... to send in ground troops and overthrow the [President Bashar al-] Assad regime," Obama said during a wide-ranging interview with BBC television that aired Sunday.
In lieu of direct military confrontation, Obama said the international community should apply pressure to Russia and Iran, "who, essentially are propping up Assad," to broker a deal with Syrian rebels to form a new transitional government.
Obama called the war in Syria a "heart-breaking situation of enormous complexity."
"In order for us to solve the long-term problems in Syria, a military solution alone – and certainly us deploying ground troops – is not going to bring that about," he said, in an exclusive interview with British television.
While ruling out a full-on invasion, Obama said the U.S.-led coalition would continue airstrikes against Islamic State targets in places like Raqqa and Mosul "to try to isolate those portions of the country, and lock down those portions of the country that are sending foreign fighters into Europe."
In doing so, he said it would slowly shrink the amount of territory held by IS.
Obama called the situation in Syria one that is "transnational in nature," and chided those countries who haven't taken part in trying to solve the issue, but still "want the United States to do something about it."
"You can't have it both ways," he said.
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