Defense Secretary Jim Mattis reportedly presented Monday a sweeping plan to defeat the Islamic State terror group to the White House and it may have involved sending more U.S. troops to Syria, Military Times reported. Labeled as a plan to “rapidly defeat” ISIS, a Pentagon spokesperson said Mattis offered up the results of his 30-day strategy review at a National Security Council meeting that involved members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet, like reported by ibtimes.com.
The plan very well may involve increasing the U.S.’ presence in war-torn Syria with more troops, while the presence in Iraq could remain unchanged, unnamed officials aware of the Mattis report’s findings told Military Times. It also calls for continued attempts to disrupt ISIS’s finances, recruiting efforts and propaganda machine.
But the spokesperson, Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, also indicated that it’s a flowing plan rather than a complete one and it can evolve over time and even expand around the globe.
“This is a broad plan,” he said. “It is global. It is not just military. It is not just Iraq/Syria.”
The prospective increase in troops to Syria seemed to fall in line with comments last week from the head of the U.S. Central Command, Gen Joseph L. Votel.
“I am very concerned about maintaining momentum,” Votel told reporters in Jordan according to The New York Times. “It could be that we take on a larger burden ourselves. That’s an option.”
Currently, the U.S. has roughly 500 Special Operations troops in Syria, The Times reported.
When Trump took over as the new commander-in-chief, he tasked the military to come up with a plan to defeat the terror group that’s ravaged parts of Syria and Iraq for nearly the last half-decade and Monday the president reportedly asked for the military’s budget to increase by $54 billion, or 3 percent, for the next fiscal year.
“We must ensure that our courageous servicemen and women have the tools they can be to deter war, and when called upon to fight in our name, only do one thing: Win,” Trump said Monday after a meeting with some of the nation’s governors.
“We have to win. We have to start winning wars again. I have to say, when I was young, in high school and college, everybody used to say we never lost a war. We never lost a war. You remember, some of you were right there with me, you remember, America never lost.”
