Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey sent White House and Pentagon officials scrambling on Tuesday, insisting that the chief military officer's comments on Capitol Hill don't contradict President Barack Obama's pledge to "not get dragged into another ground war in Iraq" and not put American "boots on the ground." The uproar started after Dempsey said that if ISIS retakes the strategically important Mosul Dam in Iraq, he would recommend that some of the 1,700 American forces currently in Iraq could move to the front lines to advise Iraqi troops trying to get the dam back. Those troops would then be advisers in a combat role.
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Gen. Dempsey goes to Capitol Hill, makes remarks that have White House scrambling
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The Joint Chiefs chairman talks about military advisers in Iraq
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The point could come when advisers would go with Iraqi troops attacking ISIS, he said
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White House says he was talking hypothetically -- Obama's no boots on the ground remains
And while Obama's unequivocal statements about combat troops may give @placeholder insight into the U.S. military playbook, the President's statements aim to reassure a war-weary American public.