Pentagon, in reversal, won’t wait for Congress to deploy Iraq troops

The Pentagon said Thursday that it would begin deploying 1,500 new troops to Iraq “in the next weeks” without first securing funding from Congress, reversing previous comments.

“We can deploy troops to the theater, but — so that — that process can and will continue,” said Defense Department press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby.

{mosads}Kirby also said Army Gen. Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, has also moved about 50 U.S. forces within Iraq to Anbar Province to get a “jump start” on expanding the advise-and-assist mission, as well as starting to train Iraqi forces in their fight against Islamic militants.

“But it doesn’t mean that we still don’t need the authorization in terms of the resources that will go with the much more robust program that we’re trying to get done,” Kirby said. “He can start it and he is.”4

President Obama ordered 1,500 more troops to Iraq on Nov. 7, which would bring the total number of forces there to more than 3,000. Previously, Defense officials said the new batch of troops would not begin flowing to Iraq until Congress signed off on $5.6 billion to pay for their missions, as well as other costs.

Congress is expected to approve the funds as part of a spending bill that’s seen as must-pass legislation in order to avoid a government shutdown next month. However, exactly when that will happen is unclear.

There is also some concern that the deployment needs to be sped up to capitalize on recent gains by Iraqi forces.

“One, it’s important and we wanted to get it started,” Kirby said. “No. 2, it sends an important signal both to the Iraqis and to coalition partners of how seriously we’re taking this.”

“And the sooner we get started, the sooner Iraqi units will improve in their capability and the sooner we’ll get coalition contributions to that particular mission,” he added.