By William Tucker
Contributor, In Homeland Security

During a visit to Germany, President Barack Obama stated that he authorized the deployment of 250 additional troops to Syria. These troops have the mission of training and assisting local forces in the fight against the Islamic State (IS). Currently, there are about 50 U.S. ground troops in Syria, bringing the total of all military personnel to 300.

In neighboring Iraq, the U.S. has roughly 4,000 ground troops and support personnel. There is also additional support from the airbase in Incirlik, Turkey, if necessary.

U.S. leaders claim that U.S. forces in Syria are vital to providing intelligence for the coalition mission. This intelligence helped with Islamic State airstrikes.

Obama Seeking Additional Support from Allies to Resolve Syria Conflict

President Obama said that he wants to see further support from European and NATO allies. He is expected to press the issue with European leaders in an upcoming meeting.

Even after the announcement of our sending more U.S. troops to Syria, Washington is pushing for a diplomatic and political solution to the Syrian conflict. Many rebel groups are preparing for the cease-fire to fail in a ramping-up for a return to combat.

With Russian support, fighting persisted throughout the cease-fire with the Assad regime. The regime continues to fight IS and other entities that it considers terrorists.

In many ways, this battle includes all of the regime opponents. With Russia withdrawing some of its forces, some of Assad’s offensive capabilities have slightly diminished.

Will More U.S. Troops Be Enough for Syria?

With the cease-fire close to collapsing, the question remains if this latest troop deployment is enough to support anti-IS activities. IS suffered losses both in personnel and territory, but it is still a large movement and more than combat-capable. The use of air power against the group helped, but ground forces are still needed to take territory away from IS.

Assad, his coalition and various Kurdish forces are better organized than IS. They established command and control, and they saw success against IS. Smaller rebel groups fighting IS have struggled. The U.S. hopes to repair this situation by training the smaller groups, so that they work better together in a combined offensive.

The fight in Syria is rather complex. The addition of some U.S. forces may help, but without a political process in place, the situation on the ground is unlikely to change. We expect that the cease-fire will fail in the near term and the brutal fighting that plagued Syria in the last five years will continue.