White House Fires Back At Panetta's And Clinton's Criticisms Of U.S. Policy Towards Iraq And Syria

Obama Team Circles Wagons As Panetta Hits White House On Iraq, Syria And More -- FOX News

The Obama administration found itself on defense Friday after former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta criticized the White House for its policies on Iraq, with the State Department and others publicly disputing his claims.

Panetta chided the president's team in his forthcoming memoir, excerpts of which have been published in the media. He alleges the White House didn't try hard enough to strike a deal with Iraq in 2011 to leave a residual force of U.S. troops behind, in turn opening the door for the region to become a haven for the Islamic State.

In newly published excerpts, he also criticized the administration over its policies toward Syria.

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Update #1: Barack Obama's Friendly-Fire Problem -- David Graham, The Atlantic
Update #2: Biden Takes Veiled Shot at Clinton, Panetta Over ‘Inappropriate’ Books -- Time

My Comment: What is my take .... I (and I would say a mass majority of the American public) were happy when U.S. troops finally withdrew from Iraq in December/2011. It was a mess when we went in, it was a mess when we stayed, and it is still a mess after our departure. The Obama administration was sensitive to this sentiment .... and they acted accordingly ... everyone wanted out, so the President took the easy route. Where I fault President Obama was/is his reluctance to look at the long term. This blogger predicted many times that if Iraq's sectarian differences could not be ironed out, and if it's oil industry could not not be properly developed to provide the funds that the Iraqi government would need to rebuild .... a sectarian war would be the inevitable result. But this was never the priority for the U.S. .... and now in hindsight .... everyone is now saying the same thing .... we should have used our influenced last year before this crisis blew up .... but unfortunately we did not .... hence the chaos of today.

I guess one could make the argument that some U.S. forces should have stayed .... but in the end I would say that it would not have made any difference. Then Iraqi PM Maliki had no interest in working with the other  sectarian groups in the country, and coupled with outside influences from Iran/Persina Gulf/Saudi Arabia coupled with the civil war in Syria .... I guess the dye was cast for where we are today. The only question that needs to be answered today is .... what are we going to do next.