Kudos to Panetta for Telling Truth About Obama and Iraq
Photo Credit: Cliff OwenFormer CIA Director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s new memoir, “Worthy Fights,” promises to be much like other books from former Obama administration officials. It will provide insight normally reserved until after a president leaves office.
Panetta couldn’t wait. Like former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, he wants to get his side of the story out there before it’s cast in concrete by sycophants who will write their own versions of events in books lauding Obama’s handling of virtually everything he’s touched since becoming president.
Kudos to Panetta for revealing how Obama’s inner circle sabotaged any chance to leave a residual military force in Iraq in 2011. Iraq, the United States and allies throughout the region and indeed the world are now caught up in the consequences. ISIS, born from the ashes of Al Qaeda in Iraq, is now a force the world must deal with.
In his book Panetta says he argued behind the scenes for a small number of troops to be left to continue training Iraq’s military. To no avail. “Those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests,” he writes. It was politics at its best.
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