Trump locked in ‘unwinnable’ war on Iran, says former US defense secretary
Former US defense secretary Leon Panetta has declared that President Donald Trump has entangled America in an “unwinnable war” against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Speaking to CNN’s Pamela Brown on Thursday, Panetta stated that the United States is now locked in a war on Iran that it cannot win.
Asked about the latest re-escalation, he criticized the Trump administration for letting the war “drag on and on without any satisfactory outcome.”
“I think we’re locked into an unwinnable war that is going to continue, as other wars have continued, without any kind of satisfactory conclusion,” he said.
Panetta, a Democrat who served as defense secretary from 2011 to 2013 under President Barack Obama, as CIA director from 2009 to 2011, and as a California congressman from 1977 to 1993, described endless warfare as the lasting “legacy” of American presidents.
“That’s the kind of legacy, frankly, that in the 21st century the United States continues to make—whether it was Iraq, whether it was Afghanistan, or whether it’s Iran,” he said.
He warned that these perpetual wars are draining US taxpayers’ money, damaging the American economy, and making the United States appear weak to the rest of the world.
“We are finding ourselves in unwinnable wars that ultimately consume the United States, hurt our economy, and most importantly, I think, make us look weak to the rest of the world,” Panetta said, indirectly acknowledging the failure of America’s regional allies.
His comments come amid the renewed intensification of strikes against Iran in recent weeks, following the US-Israeli imposed war of terror on Tehran. This includes the criminal attack of February 28 that martyred late Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei at the outset of the 40-day war, as well as ongoing tensions caused by the illegal American military presence and adventurism across West Asia, particularly in the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran has repeatedly stressed that the presence of US forces and their proxies only worsens the predicament of the aggressors, a truth powerfully confirmed by the steadfast resistance of the Iranian nation and the Axis of Resistance against the oppressors.
Since the start of the fresh US acts of aggression on Iran, Iranian armed forces have launched multiple retaliatory operations, targeting US-run bases in the region with precision missiles and drones.
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