Obama Says Deploying 50 Military Advisors to Syria is 'Consistent' With Middle East Plan

U.S. President Barack Obama said this week that his plan to deploy less than 50 military personnel to serve as advisors in northern Syria is keeping in line with his administration's plan for the Middle East.

Obma said in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt this week that his plan to deploy the military personnel maintains his "consistency" of avoiding a "boots on the ground" approach to Middle East unrest.

"I've been consistent throughout that we are not going to be fighting like we did in Iraq with battalions and occupations," Obama said during the Monday interview. "That doesn't solve the problem."

"Keep in mind that we have run Special Ops already," Obama continued. "And really, this is just an extension of what we were continuing to do."

"We are not putting U.S. troops on the frontlines fighting firefights with ISIL," the president added.

The Obama administration announced late last week that it would be deploying under 50 U.S. military personnel to northern Syria so they may serve an advisory role with opposition groups in defeating the Islamic State.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said last week that although northern Syria is inherently dangerous, this new deployment should not be viewed as a "boots on the ground" mission.

"This is a dangerous place on the globe and they are at risk, and there's no denying that," Earnest said, adding "I think if we were envisioning a combat operation, we probably would be contemplating more than 50 troops on the ground."