The crisis in Iraq is an example of what happens when the United States stops leading, says Michael Reagan, conservative commentator and son of former President Ronald Reagan.
"You can't walk away from the world and not expect these things to happen," Reagan told J.D. Hayworth and John Bachman on "America's Forum" on
Newsmax TV on Monday.
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"The reality of it is the world looks to the United States of America for leadership, and when we are not leading, the world goes into absolute turmoil, and that's what we are in today because there's no strong leadership not only in the White House, there's no strong leader in the world," he added.
Reagan contends that one of the mistakes the United States made when deciding to go into war in Iraq was to not have an exit strategy.
"What was the exit strategy? Was the exit strategy for everything to go back the way it was before we went in there the first or the second time?" he asked.
"Did they not expect everybody to go to their corners? The Kurds, the Sunnis, the Shias, ISIS, everybody else, and come out swinging at a later date and know that there was nobody there to stop them, and now we're going to send 300 people there to do what?" he added.
Democratic strategist Ari Rabin-Havt told Newsmax that "this was the inevitable conclusion."
"If we were going to leave, this was going to happen, and at a certain point, we have to leave," he explained.
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Middle East expert Walid Phares told Newsmax that "there's a sense of disorientation" among those in the region because "they feel that the administration actually has no plans," and that is "why Secretary [John] Kerry has been sent to the region."
Phares said that there is also a "new scandal brewing, which is that some of these elements have been trained by" the United States.
He also explained that to some in the region "trying to help the Iraqi government of Mr. Maliki, in a strategic way, will be the equivalent to working with Iran."
"We find ourselves in a position now that we have backed the government, which as of 2011 has been the partner of the Iranians," Phares added.
However, the Middle East expert said that the change has to come from Washington.
"We cannot do much in the region," he said. "We cannot do Band-Aid. We need to change foreign policy here — have a new consensus, no more partnership with the Muslim Brotherhood, stop that deal with the Iranians, work with the partners on the ground, such as the Kurds, the minorities, the moderates, and then we can have a plan."
"With this policy we can't even have a plan, unfortunately," Phares said.
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