The Pentagon is working behind-the-scenes on a plan to get NATO allies to play a far more significant, boots-on-the-ground role in maintaining security in Iraq as the U.S. military revamps its anti-Islamic State mission into a longer-term stabilization campaign.
Pentagon sources have told The Washington Times that Defense Secretary James N. Mattis intends to present the plan at a NATO meeting in Brussels next month, calling for a larger number of troops from the alliance to support the new mission.
U.S. officials say the overhaul, which has not yet been made public, would reshape the Iraq mission into a longer-term, more advisory and more multinational campaign akin to current American-led operations in Afghanistan, with a central focus on further bolstering Iraq’s own security forces.