President Obama made a mistake not enforcing the “red line” he established in Syria against the use of chemical weapons and in not addressing the ISIS threat quicker, former CIA director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said.

Panetta did not directly say that the current need to engage the Islamic State in Syria in Iraq was the result of Obama not using military force after Syrian president Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against civilians there, but said that the subsequent, late engagement allowed ISIS to gain the foothold they have there today.