US foreign policy on the edge of Mission Creep

Mission Creep: Haunts US foreign policy

Mission Creep was in news recently due to remarks made by General Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, before the US Senate Armed Services Committee on 16 September 2014.

Mission Creep is a term that has come to describe a gradual shift in objectives during the course of a military campaign, often resulting in unplanned long-term commitment. The term came into the American lexicon during the Somali civil war in the 1990s.

The phrase first appeared in articles concerning the United Nations peacekeeping mission during the Somali Civil War in the Washington Post on 15 April 1993, and in the New York Times on 10 October 1993.

The term was originally applied exclusively to military operations, but has recently been applied to many different fields.

In the testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, General Martin Dempsey said that to protect the US and the world at large from the threats of ISIS they may include the use of US military ground forces.

The testimony runs counter to the US President Barack Obama strategy of tackling the ISIS threat by not sending the US troops. Three years ago, Obama fulfilling his campaign promises pulled out US troops from the region after a decade-long war that produced minimal gains at unacceptable human and financial cost to the US.