Two former defense secretaries who served under President Obama are now criticizing his latest strategy to combat Islamic State militants.
Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta told CBS Evening News on Friday that the terrorist group rose to power because the U.S. pulled out of Iraq too quickly and waited too long to act in Syria.
“I really thought that it was important for us to maintain a presence in Iraq,” Mr. Panetta said in an interview set to air on “60 Minutes,” CBS reported Friday.
Mr. Panetta said the entire national security team urged Mr. Obama to give more support to rebels fighting in Syria against Bashar al-Assad.
[Washington Post]
Click HERE for video of Panetta
Kurds Flee to Turkey after IS Advance
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said that more than 60,000 Syrian Kurds had crossed into the country, fleeing an onslaught by the Islamic State. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 300 Kurdish fighters had entered Syria from Turkey to reinforce the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) that are fighting the militants.
"The IS came to our village and threatened everyone. They bombed our village and destroyed all the houses. They beheaded those who chose to stay," said Mohammed Isa, 43.
(France 24)
Iran Wants Western Concessions for Cooperation Against ISIS
- Parisa Hafezi and Louis Charbonneau
Iran is ready to work with the U.S. to stop Islamic State militants, but would like to see more flexibility on Iran's uranium enrichment program, senior Iranian officials told Reuters. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that Iran has a role to play in defeating the Islamic State.
Iran "can help in the fight against the ISIL (IS) terrorists...but it is a two-way street. You give something, you take something," said a senior Iranian official.
(Reuters)
ISIS Calls for More Attacks on Egyptian Security Forces
The Islamic State called on insurgents in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula to press ahead with attacks against Egyptian security forces and continue beheadings.
"Rig the roads with explosives for them. Attack their bases. Raid their homes. Cut off their heads," ISIS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani said.into a coalition against the Islamic State, then rely upon Allah, and kill him."
(Al Arabiya)
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VIDEOBITE:
Alan Dershowitz Weighs in on How Obama Can Defeat Islamic State:
3 comments:
Leon Panetta is mistaken. First of all, we act like we could just do what we want in Iraq but the lousy government there that we helped construct wouldn't agree to reasonable terms for us to stay. It was our mess in Iraq, from our ill conceived and unnecessary invasion that helped make ISIS what it is today. We couldn't arm the rebels in Syria as some of them were ISIS, some Al-Qaeda, and some just as bad. It was an unsavory situation that Congress abdicated from dealing with because there were no good options. I could tick off, one by one, how the US created much of the current mess in the MidEast and environs starting with our backing of the Shah of Iran, Saddam Hussein and the Taliban but what would be the point: I've already done it many times in the past, and many people, especially in Congress, seem intent on continuing to make the same mistakes.
But it remains stunningly significant that even Obama's own people think he's a foreign policy train wreck. Panetta is no GOP operative, nor is he a pundit on Fox News. He's merely an Obama team member who is going public with Obama's isolation among his own people. Hillary Clinton said the same thing in her book.
Perhaps there is something to it??
Hillary Clinton is looking to distance herself form Obama. Why she has to, with a growing economy, a record stock market, unemployment down significantly and 10-20 million uninsured covered between straight Obamacare and medicaid expansion, speaks more about an uninformed electorate, racist issues and our grossly gerrymandered Congressional voting districts than it does about actual results. As for foreign policy, everyone jumps on the bandwagon when times are tough, and no one is worse to democrats than democrats. They never learned what reagan knew---always support your own. Nevertheless, we couldn't stay in Iraq because of the Iraqis and the country was never promised and interminable occupying force when they were told that the "mission accomplished" in the first month. The invasion of Iraq empowered Iran and also set the seeds for ISIS to be able to grow and spread. There were no good options in Syria which is why our cowardly Congress said they wouldn't ever be able to bring it to a successful vote for action in Syria. Anyone Obama would've bombed or helped in Syria---you and everyone else would've said he picked the wrong partners because there weren't any good ones. This is a middle east mess started decades ago and hugely decimated by the policies of the Bush?Cheney administration. That anyone, Panetta, Congress, or McCain who takes every side hoping he'll be right at some point, thinks that they have a handle on this or know how to proceed are as narrow minded and dim witted as Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld.
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