Panetta: Obama Rushed Out of Iraq Allowing Jihadists to Breed

President Barack Obama had “leverage” to maintain a residual U.S. military force in Iraq, but decided against it, a mistake that allowed jihadists to breed in the country, argues Leon Panetta in his new book. 

Panetta, who served as Obama’s CIA director and then Secretary of Defense, made those revelations in his new book Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace, which he co-authored with Jim Newton and is set to be published on October 7.   Time published an excerpt from the new book, where Panetta argues that maintaining a residual American force in Iraq beyond 2011 could have reined in sectarian violence and prevented the rise of the Islamic State, the focus of the current U.S. military campaign in Iraq and Syria.  

U.S. military commanders in the region and the Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to keep troops lingering in Iraq, wrote Panetta.  “But the President’s team at the White House pushed back, and the differences occasionally became heated.”  (CONTINUED)

FULL ARTICLE: Panetta: Obama Rushed Out of Iraq Allowing Jihadists to Breed