Press TV
October 8, 2014
President Obama itching for military intervention in Mideast: Activist
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[Correction: Leon Panetta was Defense Secretary in the Obama administration]
An American peace activist says US President Barack Obama is “itching” for another military intervention in the Middle East by war against ISIL.
Obama is “itching for military intervention in another part of the world and this is particularly strategic, but also a sensitive part of the world, the Middle East,” Rick Rozoff, manager of the Stop NATO International Network, told Press TV on Tuesday.
“[T]he US has a large military presence in nations like Jordan [and] has increasingly been trying to insinuate itself militarily in Lebanon,” he added.
He also noted that the United States wants to increase its military presence throughout the region by using ISIL as “the pretext or as the excuse.”
Rozoff said the US and its allies are supporting armed groups against the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Rozoff said “that’s what not be limited to Iraq and it certainly includes activities in Syria as I indicated may be up to including joining the ragtag army of mercenary and other opposition armed groups that the US and its NATO allies have been supporting against the legitimate government of Damascus.”
He made the comments after former defense secretary Leon Panetta, who is critical of Obama’s ISIL strategy, said that Washington could keep troops in Iraq beyond 2011 and start arming Syrian rebels even sooner than they did.
Panetta said the president’s backtrack harmed his credibility internationally, adding that confronting the ISIL terrorist group now could give Obama a chance to “repair the damage” after having “lost his way.”
Panetta said he still believes that Obama can still turn the situation around, not just for the country, but for himself during his remaining time in the White House.
“He may have found himself again with regards to this ISIS (or ISIL) crisis. I hope that’s the case,” Panetta said.
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