In an interview with Susan Page of USA Today, Leon Panetta says:
“‘I think we’re looking at kind of a 30-year war.’ One that will have to extend beyond Islamic State to include emerging threats in Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere.”
Coming from someone who served as director of the CIA and secretary of defense in the Obama administration, this is sobering stuff. Panetta also believes that:
* The U.S. should have done the necessary, hardball negotiating to secure a status of forces agreement with Iraq so that it could leave a small and capable military presence in that country.
* The U.S. should have armed the Syrian rebels.
* The U.S. should have followed through on the president’s “red line” warning about the use of weapons of mass destruction (gas in this case) by Syria’s Assad.
