Trump Gives Pentagon Power to Set Troop Levels
President Donald Trump is giving Secretary of Defense James Mattis the authority to set the number of U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria to make the number of deployments more transparent. Currently, the Pentagon observes "force management levels" that set limits on the number of troops it is supposed to send to other countries.
But the delegation of the authority doesn't change the force management levels nor will it portend a change in the mission to defeat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Dana White, chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, clarified.
Rather, the change "enables military commanders to become more agile, adaptive and efficient in supporting our partners," said Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway.
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Under the Obama administration, military leaders chafed about micromanagement which included setting a relatively low number of troops. In Iraq, the force management level is 5,262 and in Syria, it is 503. But those numbers conceal the flow of hundreds of extra temporary forces and contractors to fill some military roles.
The Pentagon admitted that there are actually almost 7,000 troops in Iraq. Several hundred Marines and soldiers were recently sent to Syria to assist U.S.-backed forces in the fight to retake Raqqa. All were deemed temporary so not counted against the cap.
Rankine-Galloway defended the shift on troop limits, saying, "The Secretary of Defense has historically maintained force management authority during contingency operations. This is not new. This restores that authority and is a more effective way of managing combat power."
This delegation of authority is seen as another sign of Trump's willingness to let the Pentagon manage its own day-to-day combat and allow lower level commanders to make more timely airstrike decisions. This is in response to complaints about his predecessor's tight control over military operations that limited effectiveness. Top military leaders have cited that more flexibility in the decision-making process is necessary.
