Defense chief may have ponder troop recommendations November 16, 2014 -- Updated 1711 GMT (0111 HKT) Hagel would only do this if Gen. Martin Dempsey makes the recommendation NEW: President Obama says he has not changed his mind about U.S. fighting forces (CNN) -- Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is acknowledging he may have to consider recommendations to place ground forces in Iraq to help forces there locate targets if, in fact, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff makes that recommendation. But these would not be fighting forces, Hagel said. There will be no American combat troops in Iraq or Syria. Gen. Martin Dempsey has suggested at least twice that a recommendation of ground troops could come, although he has emphasized he has not made that proposal yet. He has also said that he doesn't "foresee a circumstance when it would be in our interest to take this fight on ourselves with a large military contingent." Obama: No change of mind At the G20 summit in Australia, President Obama said that he had not changed his mind about U.S. ground forces when it comes to Iraq. He still does not plan to deploy them, and Dempsey "has not advised me that I should be sending U.S. troops to fight," he said. But the President did not rule it out completely, if confronted with the most dire of dangers. "There are always circumstances, in which the United States might need to deploy ground troops," Obama said. If we discovered that ISIL had gotten possession of a nuclear weapon, and we had to run an operation to get it out of their hands, then yes, you can anticipate that not only would Chairman Dempsey recommend me sending U.S. ground troops to get that weapon out of their hands, but I would order it. Obama critics