Posted on 09/21/2014 4:31:53 PM PDT by Nachum
In a 60 Minutes interview set to air Sunday night, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says that President Obama should have left a residual force to “continue the momentum” America had going for itself in Iraq, and that he wasn’t confident that pulling out was the right move for America:
Panetta: “We gave them a chance. I mean, no one could guarantee that Iraq would be able to go in the right direction, but we gave them a chance. We gave them the tools.”
Pelley: “Back when you watched the stars and stripes being lowered for the last time in Baghdad, were you confident in that moment that pulling out was the right thing to do?”
Panetta: “No I wasn’t. I really thought it was important to maintain a presence in Iraq. The decision was that we outta at least try to maintain 8,000-10,000 U.S. troops there. Plus, keeping some of our intelligence personnel in place to be able to continue the momentum we had in the right direction.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycaller.com ...
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If this LIB bum felt that way, why didn’t he say so and resign at the time? I call face-saving BS.
Exactly how do you do that when Iraq tells you to live and it is the Agreement you signed?
Now what SHOULD have been done, if you wanted to keep a presence there (another issue entirely) was hardcore negotiate and pressure the Iraqi government to change the agreement. There were so many other mistakes made from Bush Jr through ODimwit, but you just don’t tell a sovereign Nation you are staying when you agreed to leave.
The focus on this is all wrong ... kinda like ODimwit.
I give Leon Panetta credit for blowing the whistle even if too little, too late. There is a gaggle of other party operatives who won't even do that.
Dontcha hate I told you so’s.
Thanks Captain Obvious
Obama’s anti-Bush fetish will not permit him to send or maintain U. S. ground combat troops in Iraq. He has virtually demonized Dubya for that.
Iraq wouldn’t agree to a reasonable Status of Forces Agreement that would allow our troops to do what was necessary so the only choice was to leave. The communication failure was in not pointing out the consequences of that choice to the Iraqis.
On the face of it, countries should have their sovereignty after the conclusion of a war, if they can clearly maintain it. It took 10 years after WW2 before Germany got full sovereignty so this turnover schedule was obviously too quick. The costs to the US to maintain forces were also a large factor.
If you had been a Muslim POTUS, would you have maintained a military presence in a muzzie country?
Well, Leon, maybe the President would take war a little more seriously if his Secretary of Defense wasn’t flying home to California every weekend.
this is a positive development, but come on, his timing suggests that he somply knows the geese both Obama and Hillary are by now cooked, in terms of long term political prospects.
I have to admit he does have the old, forlorn avuncular teddy bear routine down very very well.
Leon is looking out for himself, here:
were he a hero he’d have fled the sinking ship before it was utterly clear she was headed into Davy Jones’ locker...
Panetta is a fine Monday morning quarterback. A little late for this liberal to reveal the truth....
Posts BUMP! Foreign policy mess from “religion of peace” liars.
Yeh but Panetta and Bammy try and deflect it off as al-Maliki’s fault for pushing the US out of Iraq. Like we couldn’t overrule that clown who got his job courtesy of US presence? Also Bammy campaigned slogan on ending the war in Iraq so he was gung ho on it and against the advice of the generals.
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