NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization) has recently voted against sending ground troops to fight the extremist militant group ISIS as of December 7, 2015. The NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg explained to a Swiss newspaper “That is not on the agenda of the coalition and the NATO allies. The United States has a limited number of special forces. In the foreground, however, is strengthening local forces. This is not easy, but it’s the only option.” However, he did state that NATO would help Turkey improve its air defenses after Turkey shot down a Russian military jet last month. The alliance is scheduled to adopt a package of measures for Turkey before Christmas to calm the standoff between Turkey and Russia.

The United States of America has also taken precautions to stop ISIS and any future terrorist attacks on the U.S. or any fellow countries. President Barack Obama recently sent a new force of special operations troops into Syria and Iraq after the attacks on Paris on November 13. President Barack Obama has stated that his decision to send more U.S. special forces to combat Islamic State in Iraq was not an indication that the United States was heading for another invasion like the 2003 Iraqi invasion. Also, he said that his strategy to fight the militant group does not include U.S. ground combat troops being deployed.

Although NATO members voted against the deploy of ground troops in Iraq and Syria, a majority of Americans disagree with the decision. According to a December 2015 CNN poll, 53 percent of Americans agree that we should send ground troops into the countries. Also, 57 percent of Democrats say military action is going well, which is a major improvement when in just October only 43 percent of Democrats thought it was going well. WHHS teacher Gina Anthony voiced her opinion stating, “I do agree with NATO’s decision to not send troops into Syria. Current military action in Syria and Iraq against ISIS is not going well, but we should not send our troops to fight on their ground.” Although we cannot agree on how to solve the problem, one thing every American can agree on is that something has to be done and fast.