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The President has said that we're not going to put combat troops in Iraq; but, that we may send US Special Forces (SF) advisors in to bolster Iraqi military training. That's the official cover story for both domestic and international consumption. SF advisors are being deployed; however, it's to help establish forward operating bases. SF has for some time been training qualified Syrian refugees in base camps along the Syrian border to serve as sort of an Iraqi Foreign Legion. Their counterinsurgency combat training is nearing completion and arrangements are being made to transfer command and control of those fighters to the Kurds, not Maliki, to restore regional dominance in territory lost by Iraqi regular forces under central government control. The elite Iraqi Foreign Legion members have been offered Iraqi citizenship, small properties, and family relocation upon successful completion of their term of military service. Their soon to be Kurdish commanders are presently determining (with our advice) the best locations for forward operating bases to interdict ISIS/ISIL manpower resupply and conducting covert operations to eliminate the insurgent threat through attrition. US surgical airstrikes will support those operations. Other than that, not much new going on there.
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