Recruiting Iraqi Troops Proving Problematic
The United States is having trouble recruiting enough Iraqi troops to fight ISIS. The goal was to train 24,000 Iraqi forces this fall.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter said less than 10,000 Iraqi soldiers have joined the fight, describing the effort as "a work in progress."
"We simply haven't received enough troops," Carter said earlier this week.
Critics of the Obama administration's policy in Iraq say one solution could be to deploy tactical U.S. troops to the country. But Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disagreed.
"We put U.S. forces in harm's way simply to stiffen the spine of local forces... If their spine is not stiffened by the threat of ISIL on their way of life, nothing we do is going to stiffen their spine," Dempsey said.
About 3,500 U.S. troops are in Iraq assisting its security forces. Last week, President Barack Obama approved an additional 450 troops to help Iraqi forces in Anbar province.
