Leon Panetta - the Latest Messenger Obama Is Trying to "Kill"

Never have there been so many books by high-ranking administration cabinet members that critique a sitting US President as we are seeing now in the Obama presidency. After Robert Gates, former Secretary of Defense, and Hillary Clinton, former Secretary of State, it is the turn of former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta, whose new book, "Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War and Peace," has just been released. Mr. Panetta told Fox News Tuesday that there is no question that the Obama administration’s decision to not maintain a presence in Iraq was a mistake, saying that President Obama needs to “develop the will to get into the ring and fight” against ISIS. Panetta, who served President Obama for four years - as Director of the CIA from 2009 to 2011 and Secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013 - said on “The O’Reilly Factor” that he, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the director of the CIA made a “very strong case” for keeping at least 10,000 troops in Iraq after the war. Panetta said Obama agreed with their assessment but ultimately wasn’t willing to push the Iraqis on the issue : “I think the President did support providing that 10,000 troop presence in Iraq and supported CIA operations, supported the diplomatic operations that we wanted to continue. The real issue was how hard did he fight to make it happen. That’s the issue that I raised.” Panetta said he believes Obama is on the right track now with the airstrikes against ISIS, but he disagrees with Obama's choice to not deploy ground troops in Iraq and Syria : “Frankly it’s not going to work to do air attacks without people on the ground who know where the targets are and what’s going on. Now if we have people we can trust on the ground that’s fine, but if the military thinks that we ought to have the special forces, boots on the ground to do what’s right I think that the President ought to be open to that kind of recommendation.” Panetta claims that while Obama has the “guts” to make the right foreign policy decisions, he sometimes 'fails to pull the trigger.' He said that needs to change in order for the US to defeat ISIS : “I want this President to be successfu and I want this country to be successful. And I think deep down he knows what needs to be done. What he's gotta do is develop the will to fight, to get into the ring in order to make it happen.” According to Panetta, Obama is also ineffective at times because the President dislikes playing politics in Washington. He said this trait of Obama’s “hurts his presidency” and “hurts him in terms of getting things done.” He said this has led both Congress and Obama to give up on ever reaching a compromise on multiple issues. ”That is what concerns me because I think this country cannot stand another two years of stalemate,” he said. In the book, Panetta heavily criticized the White House for its policies on Iraq and Syria, especially for warning al-Assad about the use of chemical weapons against his own people, drawing the famous red line, and then refusing to act when al-Assad actually was shown to have used chemical weapons, killing many Syrians. ~~~~~ Obama and his inner circle went easy on Robert Gates, whose criticisms now seem to be the least aggressive, because he is a Republican who served as Defense Secretary for President George W. Bush. Obama and the White House almost had to forgive Hillary Clinton, out of fear and a sense of politcal survival -- she is, after all, half the couple that still controls the bulk of the Democratic Party that wants her to run for President in 2016. But Leon Panetta is a lifelong Democrat with no presidential ambitions and no visible political base in the Democrat Party. So it was predictable that the Obama administration would take out its anger and frustration anainst Gates, Hillary and Panetta - as well as any number of other political and military attackers both in America and abroad - by pushing back hard at Panetta. Perhaps Obama reasoned that attacking Panetta would be safe, that Panetta was the weak link in the chain-attack on Obama's foreign and military policies. So, Vice President Joe Biden criticized Panetta's criticisms as “inappropriate." State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki defended Obama's 2011 Iraq troop withdrawal by saying for the umpteenth time - this time to Fox News, the conservative powerhouse media outlet despised by Obama and the White House - that Iraqi officials did not want US troops to remain after 2011 and no amount of extra prodding by the White House could have made the difference. Panetta had already answered that in his book, saying the US had several cards to.play that would have changed Iraq prime minister Nour al-Maliki's mind. And Obama brought off the bench Bill Burton, press secretary for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign and deputy White House press secretary for the first two years of his administration, to attack Panetta. On CNN Tuesday, Burton said : “He [Panetta] is a guy who has had a long and storied career in Washington and has really served his country well,” Burton said. But, Burton then placed his knife : "...And it is kind of sad that in its twilight he’s done such a dishonorable thing by -- at a time -- by going after the President that he served at a time of a lot of different instabilities around the world. “I think if you ask the question, Do you think that Leon Panetta’s book helps or harms our interest, or help or harm the credibility of this administration as the President is conducting the job of foreign policy and keeping our nation safe? It’s hard to say yes. On the substance, this President has shown his leadership time and again. He’s made some tough calls. He’s advanced our [interests] in very real ways. He got Osama bin Laden. He got our troops out of Afghanistan." ~~~~~ Dear readers, first - just to get the facts right - sorry, Mr. Burton, but there are still many US troops in Afghanistan - but perhaps President Obama has decided to forget about his 'achievement' in withdrawing all US troops from Iraq. As for OBL, the military Special Operations and the CIA pursued and "got" him. We might look at the normally Obama-leaning New York Times for a pro-Obama report on Burton's attack on Panetta - but not so : “Mr. Panetta is re-emerging with a blunt account of his time in the Obama administration. In a new memoir..., Mr. Panetta draws a largely respectful portrait of a President who made important progress and follows a ‘well-reasoned vision for the country’ but too often ‘avoids the battle, complains, and misses opportunities.’" But, the best reference comes from Leon Panetta himself, who wrote that Obama has a "frustrating reticence to engage his opponents and rally support for his cause." Too frequently, Obama "relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader." ~~ I am tempted to fall back on clichés -- Where there is smoke there is fire / Everybody can't be wrong -- and Lincoln's immortal "You can fool some of the people all of the time. You can fool all of the people some of the time. But you cannot fool all of the people all of the time." Mr. Obama, quit trying to kill the messenger -- there are too many of them. Instead, read Leon Panetta's book. Check out videos of the criticism of your Iraq-Syria policies coming from everyone -- your own military Chief General Dempsey, your Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, most of the House and Senate, British Prime Minister David Cameron, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, Saudi Arabia leaders, Turkey, the Kurds, NATO -- indeed, everybody cannot be wrong. Accept the criticism. Call on your cabinet and the military Joint Chiefs and take their advice. As Leon Panetta said -- "I think this country cannot stand another two years of stalemate."