President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria and Afghanistan sends a “terrible message to the world about where we stand,” according to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Panetta said despite “good progress” the military has made against ISIS, that battle “isn’t over.”
“I’ve never seen a situation like this in which almost every important area that is key to this country is confronting crisis or confronting crisis in terms of our national security,” Panetta remarked about a tumultuous week for the Trump administration.
“I think the step to suddenly withdraw those troops from Syria has sent a terrible message to the world about where the United States stands.”
Panetta said the real question is: “Are we going to deal with the threats to our country?”
“9/11 was an attack on the United States of America, we lost 3,000 people. We went to war as a result of that,” he said.
“This is not a time to back away from that responsibility, and that I think is the message that concerns me, sending a message to ISIS that somehow they can come back, they can be resilient, they can at some point come back and attack us and have us vulnerable to another 9/11 attack.”
“That is unacceptable,” he declared.
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