Paul Eaton Quoted by the New York Times on the Islamic State

U.S. General Open to Ground Forces in Fight Against ISIS in Iraq

By Mark Landler and Jeremy Peters

September 16, 2014 | New York Times

The challenge will come, General Dempsey said, when Iraqi and Kurdish forces try to drive the militants out of densely populated urban areas like Mosul. In those cases, General Dempsey said, he might recommend deploying Special Operations troops to provide what he called “close combat advising,” essentially working alongside Iraqi commanders in the field and helping them direct their troops to targets.

While the Americans would not fire weapons themselves, military experts said there was little practical distinction between the role General Dempsey described at the hearing and actual combat.

“We’ve already got ground forces introduced, and they are performing combat missions,” Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army general who helped train the Iraqi security forces and is now a senior adviser to the National Security Network, said on Tuesday. “I applaud the general for his candor. That will help the president and the debate greatly.”

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