Carter: US Prepared to Do More in Syria

Members of the Islamic State militant group parade in the northern rebel-held Syrian city of Raqqa. Carter said if the U.S. finds additional groups willing to fight IS in Syria, he and President Barack Obama are prepared to deploy additional U.S. forces there.

WASHINGTON—
U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said if the U.S. finds additional groups willing to fight Islamic State militants in Syria, he and President Barack Obama are prepared to deploy additional U.S. forces there.
Carter, appearing Sunday on U.S. television while aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt
in the South China Sea, said that as the U.S. learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, the key to victory is having local forces capable not only of winning but also keeping the peace. 
"Now, those are hard to find in Iraq and Syria. That’s why its going to take some time because we have to help develop, enable, encourage those forces," the defense chief said. Using an acronym for the group, he added that some forces "have shown some effectiveness in fighting ISIL and, if they grow in size, we’ll do more. If we find additional groups that are willing to fight ISIL, and they’re capable and are vetted, we’ll do more. The president has indicated a willingness to do more. I’m certainly prepared to recommend that he do more, but you need to have capable local forces."
Carter said the number of U.S. troops involved is less important than their abilities.

They have these unique skills to be able to call in airstrikes, to provide intelligence. So, they are force multipliers for a force that is much larger than 50, but is [composed of] local people," he said.
Although U.S. military personnel are not deployed to take part in combat missions, Carter acknowledged that, as in the case of a U.S. Army master sergeant killed last month in a hostage rescue mission with Kurdish commandoes, they may find themselves forced to fight.
"We’re sending them into a dangerous situation and it can develop into a combat situation, as it did with Joshua Wheeler," Carter said. "They’re sent there to support the local combat forces, but they can find themselves engaged as he did."
Asked if the U.S. is going back to war in the region, the defense chief described the IS group as an evil that threatens American security. He said the group must and will be beaten.