National Security Adviser Susan Rice appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday to discuss the US military efforts against ISIS.

Chuck Todd raised the growing concern that President Obama's strategy of air strikes without combat forces is not effective and the use of ground forces will be needed to meet the President's goal to "degrade and destroy" ISIS. Rice re-affirmed the White House's contention that ground troops are not needed in Iraq to battle the ISIS threat.

She then claimed the Pentagon has not made any recommendations for combat forces for the White House to contemplate:

There has been no recommendation from military commanders on the ground or here in Washington that the United States put ground combat forces into Iraq. That's not come up the chain to anybody at the White House. I don't anticipate that it will, Chuck. Let's be clear here. President has been very plain that this is not a campaign that requires or even would benefit from American ground troops in combat again. The Iraqi prime minister, the government of Iraq have said very plainly, they don't want American troops in combat. We are there to help build up the Iraqi capacity to sustain their territory and to hold the ground.

Consider what the National Security Adviser is saying here: The White House has not heard any recommendations for combat forces in Iraq and the President has "been very plain" that American troops are not needed to defeat ISIS in Iraq. This suggests that the Pentagon has either made the calculation that troops are not needed to defeat ISIS so they have not put it on the President's desk for a decision, or, the White House has made it clear that they don't want combat troops as an option to be considered.

H/T: RCP