"President
Obama’s former ambassador to Iraq says in a new interview that his
administration “did almost nothing” in response to intelligence warnings
earlier this year that Islamic State radicals were gaining ground in
Iraq and threatening the country’s stability.
“The
administration not only was warned by everybody back in January, it
actually announced that it was going to intensify support against ISIS
with the Iraqi armed forces. And it did almost nothing,” says James
Jeffrey, who served as U.S. ambassador to Iraq between 2010 and 2012, in
"Frontline's" "The Rise of ISIS," which airs on PBS Tuesday night (check local listings) and is previewed here exclusively on Yahoo News.
Jeffrey
is one of a number of ex-administration officials who appear in the
film and sharply criticize the decisions of the president they once
served. Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and former Defense
Secretary Leon Panetta both take issue with Obama’s refusal to arm
moderate rebels in Syria who — it is now argued — could have acted as a
counterweight to the Islamic State (also called ISIS or ISIL).
“I think we made the wrong decision in not providing assistance to the rebels,” Panetta bluntly says at one point."
No comments:
Post a Comment