Pentagon chief says more US troops will not fix Iraq or Syria

WASHINGTON — Sending thousands more American troops into Iraq or Syria in a bid to accelerate the defeat of the Islamic State would push U.S. allies to the exits, create more anti-U.S. resistance and give up the U.S. military’s key advantages, Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in an interview.

Speaking from his Pentagon office overlooking the Potomac River on Wednesday, Carter said he favors looking for ways to speed up the counter-Islamic State campaign, which administration critics including the president-elect, Donald Trump, have called slow-footed and overly cautious.

[...] we would risk turning people who are currently inclined to resist the Islamic State or to join ranks with the coalition, “potentially into resisting us, and that would increase the strength of the enemy.”

While U.S. troops can do that, it would not leverage the U.S. military’s biggest strengths, which are special operation forces, mobility, air power and intelligence-gathering technologies — “exquisite capabilities that no one else has.”