Earlier this week, President Obama announced he was sending 250 special operations troops to Syria to assist in the fight against ISIS—just days after he announced he would also be sending 200 more troops to Iraq for the same purpose.
It's a move that has some, including Senator John McCain, making comparisons to America's slow build-up of advisory forces in Vietnam —and the catastrophic results.
But Congressman Bill Keating said Americans should not be worried about repeating the mistakes of Vietnam in Syria.
"It's important to always be mindful because those of us who remember Vietnam, it started with adviser after adviser and it grew," said Keating, who represents Massachusetts's 9th district.
"That isn't the case here with this administration as yet, but it's something those of us in Congress concerned about that are looking at closely," he continued.
Keating cited the difficulties of gathering intelligence in the areas of Syria and Iraq where ISIS has taken control, and said that additional troops on the ground would be able to assist in that effort and provide strategic support to coalition forces.
"These 250 additional troops are there to provide that kind of intelligence on the ground, support, logistics, and doing it to the Kurdish—the Peshmerga—and the Arab forces that are fighting to shrink the Islamic State," he said. "So that's consistent with our overall strategy."
But Keating said lasting stability in Syria and Iraq would require political—not military—solutions.
"Ultimately we're not going to be successful unless there's a political solution in that region where the people that reclaim that territory have their own sovereignty there," Keating said.
"I hope we've learned the lesson from Iraq where we're not going in there and being expected to stay forever," he continued. "That kind of strategy has been proven ineffective."
To hear more from Congressman Bill Keating, tune in to Boston Public Radio above.
