Panetta: US Didn’t Prevent Onslaught of ISIL

Local Editor

Former Pentagon chief Leon Panetta has denounced the White House in a new memoir, accusing President Barack Obama's top aides of undercutting efforts to secure a deal in 2011 that could have kept US troops in Iraq.

Retaining a small US force, according to him, would have helped contain sectarian violence and prevented the conditions that helped open the door to the onslaught of the ISIL terrorist group, Panetta argues in a soon-to-be released book, "Worthy Fights." He said that, "Privately, the various leadership factions in Iraq all confided that they wanted some US forces to remain as a bulwark against sectarian violence."

While Military and State Department officials tried to broker an agreement with the Baghdad leadership, the White House took a back seat and showed little determination to make the deal happen, Panetta said.

The US government had "leverage" but chose not to use it, he wrote.
"But the President's team at the White House pushed back, and the differences occasionally became heated.

He further added: "Flournoy argued our case, and those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.
"The undersecretary of military for policy, Michele Flournoy, the number three-ranking civilian at the Pentagon, pressed the argument with the full backing of the top brass, including the chiefs of all the armed forces, he said.

Panetta, who served as war secretary from 2011 to 2013, said the White House let a potential agreement "slip away" and the episode has bothered him ever since.
"To my frustration, the White House coordinated the negotiations but never really led them.
"Officials there seemed content to endorse an agreement if State and Defense could reach one, but without the President's active advocacy, al-Maliki was allowed to slip away," he wrote.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team