WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, Central Asia, and Counterterrorism, released the following statement after U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that the United States will deploy additional special forces to Iraq and Syria to fight ISIS: 

“Sending more U.S. ground troops is a mistake. Though tempting to try to make up the inadequacies of local forces with superior U.S. personnel, the slow build-up of U.S. combat soldiers inside Syria and Iraq risks repeating the mistake of the Iraq War – believing that extremism can be defeated by U.S. troops absent local political and military capacity.  

“As I warned in October, deploying troops to Syria in the middle of a civil war inevitably risks drawing U.S. forces into direct combat with a proliferating number of armed groups and foreign militaries, a quagmire that could involve us for years to come. U.S. ground troops can kill a lot of bad guys, but as we learned in Iraq, our presence has the effect of drawing two enemy fighters into battle for every one we kill. We cannot defeat ISIS without the commitment of the local forces and populations that live next to them, and we cannot win this fight for them. 

“ISIS is the number one threat in the region, and defeating them must remain our focus. But a plan to defeat ISIS does not involve U.S. boots on the ground.  The U.S. should help stand up an inclusive Iraqi fighting force capable of taking the fight to ISIS, continue airstrikes and special operations missions against key ISIS targets, significantly ramp up our humanitarian assistance, and work with our allies and others in the region toward a political solution. None of this requires an expansion of U.S. ground operations in Syria or Iraq. 

“Ultimately, Congress needs to embrace its constitutional obligation and hold a vote to authorize military action against ISIS. Today's announcement of new ground troops in the Middle East is further evidence that we are at war in the Middle East again, and Congress should have the guts to authorize and set parameters around this new fight."

Murphy has strongly opposed deploying American troops to Syria. Earlier this year, Murphy introduced an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would prevent the United States from sending American ground troops to engage in the fight against ISIS in Iraq or Syria. He also introduced legislation with U.S. Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) to sunset the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force that was passed in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, and called on the U.S. Senate to vote to reauthorize war against ISIS before the end-of-the-year recess in December. 

In the wake of the attacks in Paris, Murphy urged Congress to strengthen the Visa Waiver Program, and emphasized the need for increased law enforcement data sharing among visa waiver program countries. Murphy also called for a bipartisan effort to close a loophole that currently allows individuals on the terror watch list to purchase firearms and explosives in the United States.