Obama: On Troop Increases in Iraq, ‘I’m Never Going to Say Never’

This week President Obama quietly doubled the number of American troops in Iraq, responding to the threat from the Islamic State. Should Americans expect a further troop increase?

“As commander-in-chief,” President Obama told CBS’s Bob Schieffer in response to being asked just that. “I’m never going to say never. But what the commanders who presented the plans to me say, is that we may actually see fewer troops over time because now we’re seeing coalition members starting to partner with us on the training-and-assist effort [focused on Iraqi military forces].”

The president’s coy response to Schieffer’s question comes months after he was roundly criticized for declaring that American troops would not go into combat against the Islamic State — a position the president reiterated on Sunday morning — thereby revealing American military strategy to an enemy.