On November 7, 2014 Rear Admiral Kirby gave a press conference where he specifically addressed the deployment of an additional 1500 US troops to Iraq thus confirming the order made by President Barack Obama.
Kirby’s comments are as follows:
“The commander in chief has authorized Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to deploy to Iraq up to 1,500 additional U.S. personnel over the coming months in a non-combat role to expand our advise and assist mission and initiate a comprehensive training effort for Iraqi forces.
Secretary Hagel made this recommendation to the president based on the request of the government of Iraq, U.S. Central Command’s assessment of Iraqi units, the progress Iraqi security forces have made in the field, and in concert with the development of a coalition campaign plan to defend key areas and go on the offensive against ISIL.
U.S. Central Command will establish two expeditionary advise and assist operation centers in locations outside of Baghdad and Erbil to provide support for the Iraqis at the brigade headquarters level and above. These centers will be supported by a appropriate array of force protection capabilities.
U.S. Central Command will establish several sites across Iraq that will accommodate the training of 12 Iraqi brigades, specifically nine Iraqi army and three Peshmerga brigades. These sites will be located in northern, western, and southern Iraq.
Coalition partners will join U.S. personnel at these locations to help build Iraqi capacity and capability. The training will be funded through the request for an Iraqi train and equip fund that the administration will submit to Congress as well as from the government of Iraq.”
Over the coming weeks, as we finalize the training site locations, the United States will work with coalition members to determine how many U.S. and coalition personnel will be required at each location for the training effort. Ultimately, these Iraqi forces, when fully trained, will enable Iraq to better defend its citizens, its borders, and its interests against the threat of ISIL, and it is perfectly in keeping with the mission that we’ve been assigned there to assist the ISF and Peshmerga forces again as they improve their capability against ISIL.”
Source: Pentagon http://www.defense.gov/Transcripts/Transcript.aspx?TranscriptID=5535
Note: The President has requested $5 billion dollars for the campaign to fight ISIS. The problem is that The war against ISIS could cost American taxpayers up to $1.5 Billion a month. Not including other associated costs which could bump that to $40 billion per year or more.
The estimated $30 billion to $40 billion of new spending would come on top of the Pentagon’s $496 billion fiscal 2015 operating budget for personnel and contractors and the roughly $58.6 billion in an “Overseas Contingency Operation” fund that is used to finance U.S. war operations in the Middle East.
The OCO, as it is known, has paid for the protracted U.S. military engagement in the Middle East with borrowing that adds to the long-term U.S. debt.