White House announces it will not send troops into Syria, deploys them to the border

Ariel Cohen
Daily Caller
June 15, 2013
Source: http://dailycaller.com/2013/06/14/white-house-announces-it-will-not-send-troops-into-syria/

Three hundred U.S. troops now stand on the northern Jordan border adjacent to Syria, The Times of London reports. The deployment will reportedly remain there for months under the guise of a training exercise.

The White House said Friday it does not plan to send U.S. troops into Syria, despite offering aid to rebel groups fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

“Nobody has asked us to [go into Syria]. The Syrian opposition does not think that it’s a good idea,” Ben Rhodes, current Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communication, said during a White House press conference Thursday evening. ”We certainly don’t think it’s in our national interest to send U.S. troops.”

The White House distinguished their actions in the Middle East from those of the previous administration’s, expressing a reluctance to enter a scenario similar to the 2003 Iraq War.

Full article here