Will Obama still claim “no boots on the ground?” Most likely.

Via Times of Israel:

US military advisers are likely to take a more direct role in the ground campaign against jihadists in Iraq once Iraqi forces are ready to go on the offensive, the top US officer said in comments aired Sunday.

General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said he had not yet encountered a situation where US airstrikes would be more effective if US troops were on the ground, spotting targets.

But he said that when Iraqi forces are ready to take the offensive against the Islamic State jihadists who have overrun swaths of territory in northern and western Iraq, as well as in Syria, that would likely change.

“Mosul will likely be the decisive battle in the ground campaign at some point in the future,” Dempsey said in an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” referring to the northern Iraqi city seized by IS militants in June.

“My instinct at this point is that will require a different kind of advising and assisting because of the complexity of that fight,” he said.

Dempsey caused a stir last month when he told lawmakers that if he believed US military advisers should accompany Iraqi troops on the ground against IS fighters, he would recommend that to President Barack Obama.