With a functioning command and control on the ground, the US could air drop one division, and have a heavy division on the seas and rolling in country pretty quickly.
Finding an ISIS decisive moment now, though, is likely to be impossible. We attacked their grouped forces from the air, so now they’ve dispersed.
Any follow on combat forces should have immediately followed the softening up offered by the air campaign. They’re supposed to work in concert. Air/artillery support and then a peshmerga unit should rush into the area and take advantage of the chaos.
That’s not happening, so the next idea is to have US troops be the follow on forces. If that doesn’t happen, then they simply aren’t serious about this battle. They’re just putting on a show leading up to the election.
Our assault ships can get a battalion at a time to the beach in pretty jig time. There are at least nearby. We still have a staging area in Kuwait but it’s a thousand miles up the river to the fight. I wonder if Erdogan is willing to let us use his railroad yet? That would be an overnighter to get a trainload of our guys to where the Kurds could use the help? It would indeed be entertaining to see Odumbo explain to Erdogan that he needs to have a train ready at his dock first thing in the morning.