In the wake of the war in Iraq and the ground incursion the US launched in Afghanistan after 9/11, the phrase “boots on the ground’ has become something of an obscenity among the American public.
Putting American lives at stake by sending soldiers into battle against extremist groups operating in the Mid-East is now viewed by many as the ultimate foreign policy blunder, which helps to explain why Washington has resorted increasingly to i) training and supplying proxy armies, and ii) executing “targets” from the stratosphere via drone strikes.