WASHINGTON – The U.S. “will need to increase our presence on the ground” in the Middle East to combat the Islamic State, Jeb Bush said Wednesday, crossing a line that several of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination have so far sidestepped.

In a speech that his campaign billed as a major address on military policy, Bush did not specify how many troops he would send or whether he would have them engage in direct combat against the Islamic State.

“The bulk of these ground troops will need to come from local forces that we have built workable relationships with,” said Bush, the former governor of Florida.

But the U.S. “should not delay in leading a global coalition to take out ISIS with overwhelming force,” he said, using an acronym for the Islamic State. And “while air power is essential, it alone cannot bring the results we seek.”

The Obama administration has dispatched several thousand U.S. troops to Iraq to train Iraqi forces and help direct airstrikes. And late last month, the administration announced it would send special operations forces to Syria.

But President Barack Obama has resisted a direct combat role for U.S. troops. Iraqi and Syrian forces need to take primary responsibility for recapturing territory that the Islamic State has seized in those two countries, he has said.

How much Bush’s plan would differ from the administration’s in practice remains uncertain because the candidate has not specified what sort of force he has in mind.

Though his plan lacked details, Bush clearly set up a contrast in language with Obama.

“Radical Islamic terrorists have declared war on the western world,” he said. “Their aim is our total destruction. We can’t withdraw from this threat or negotiate with it. We have but one choice: to defeat it.”

Tribune News Service