Isis: Why the US can't send in ground troops to defeat the militant group

A ground war is what Isis wants because it plays into the group's apocalyptic rhetoric

(Getty)

On 6 December, four days after a shooting in San Bernardino, California, left 14 dead and 21 injured, President Barack Obama used a major Oval Office speech to talk about threats facing the US.

One of the shooters was suspected of pledging her allegiance to the terrorist group Isis on Facebook as the attack was unfolding.

Obama addressed the ongoing threat from Isis and attempted to explain the US' current strategy to counteract the group's influence in the Middle East and across the world, including deploying special operations forces to Iraq and Syria, bombing Isis targets, boosting intelligence-sharing with allies, supporting Iraqi and Syrian forces on the ground, and pursuing a political settlement to end the Syrian civil war.

One thing Obama was adamant about, however, was that US not commit to a "long and costly ground war in Iraq or Syria." His reasoning: That's what Isis wants.

Shortly after the speech, New York Times foreign correspondent Rukmini Callimachi tweet-stormed a response that further elucidated Obama's point: a ground war is what Isis wants because it plays into the group's apocalyptic rhetoric.

Here's Callimachi's explanation of the situation in Syria and Iraq:

Rukmini Callimachi on Isis

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